Comments on: 40 years after the rebellion http://blacksmythe.com/blog/2007/05/30/40-years-after-the-rebellion/ Intellectual discussions on pressing issues Fri, 05 Dec 2008 17:03:37 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.2 By: Lester Spence http://blacksmythe.com/blog/2007/05/30/40-years-after-the-rebellion/#comment-6070 Lester Spence Thu, 12 Jul 2007 22:48:57 +0000 http://blacksmythe.com/blog/2007/05/30/40-years-after-the-rebellion/#comment-6070 Bobby I think I forgot to respond to this but wanted to. We can't possibly move beyond the quagmire we are in now if people don't have the space and the freedom to think and to generate new ideas. And also the freedom and space to argue for and against the ones we already have. Bobby I think I forgot to respond to this but wanted to. We can’t possibly move beyond the quagmire we are in now if people don’t have the space and the freedom to think and to generate new ideas. And also the freedom and space to argue for and against the ones we already have.

]]> By: BobbyV http://blacksmythe.com/blog/2007/05/30/40-years-after-the-rebellion/#comment-4348 BobbyV Sat, 02 Jun 2007 02:02:06 +0000 http://blacksmythe.com/blog/2007/05/30/40-years-after-the-rebellion/#comment-4348 I'm a New Yorker with over 10 years as a resident of the Detroit area. My introduction to Michigan occurred during the Malice Green trial – 2 Detroit cops, a 6 pound flashlight, and one dead black crack dealer in the back of the black and white. As a New Yorker, I matured in an environment that, while ignorant of black culture, was comfortably free of Jim Crow stereotypes. How very different was my first introduction to the rough-edged blue collar mentality of many Michiganders. White or Black, sensitive travelers can probably name several episodes where the level of racism was so overt, so muscular, so far in excess of what we had ever experienced in our communities that it shattered our long-held belief in the ultimate triumph of social progress. Welcome to Michigan: We’re now partners in Devolution with the likes of Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi. Michigan’s inability to deal with checkered racial history will continue to jeopardize its transition to a 21st Century community of like minds. Michiganders need to learn that blacks have always had a “life of the mind” but it required their self-imposed exile to decadent Europe to satisfy their hunger for intellectual stimulation. In his seminal book Partisanship, Race, and the Public Intellectual, Gerald Early reminds us that “[T]here was virtually nothing in American society to support a black person who wanted to live a life of the mind, a life of ideas, except perhaps the Communist Party where most black intellectuals and thinkers cut their teeth in this country before 1970.” Reconstruction of Detroit’s proud reputation as a tolerant, progressive promoter of individual freedom (1st state to eliminate the death penality, and home of the 8 hour work day) and liberty is threatened by the continued deterioration in Michigan’s economic climate. Michigan needs to nurture that intellectual, bi-racial, life of the mind necessary to recapture its position as a leading defender of human values. Unfortunately, preparation for this difficult task requires that we work through those malformed and crippled embarrassments we once believed to be ideas. Dostoyevsky wrote that, “Every man has reminiscences that he would not tell to everyone but only his friends. He has other matters in his mind that he would not reveal even to his friends, but only to himself, and that in secret. But there are other things that a man is afraid to tell even to himself, and every decent man has a number of such things stored away in his mind.” As decent citizens, let’s work together in developing a community where a “life of the mind” is available for all its citizens. I’m a New Yorker with over 10 years as a resident of the Detroit area. My introduction to Michigan occurred during the Malice Green trial – 2 Detroit cops, a 6 pound flashlight, and one dead black crack dealer in the back of the black and white. As a New Yorker, I matured in an environment that, while ignorant of black culture, was comfortably free of Jim Crow stereotypes. How very different was my first introduction to the rough-edged blue collar mentality of many Michiganders. White or Black, sensitive travelers can probably name several episodes where the level of racism was so overt, so muscular, so far in excess of what we had ever experienced in our communities that it shattered our long-held belief in the ultimate triumph of social progress. Welcome to Michigan: We’re now partners in Devolution with the likes of Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi.

Michigan’s inability to deal with checkered racial history will continue to jeopardize its transition to a 21st Century community of like minds. Michiganders need to learn that blacks have always had a “life of the mind” but it required their self-imposed exile to decadent Europe to satisfy their hunger for intellectual stimulation. In his seminal book Partisanship, Race, and the Public Intellectual, Gerald Early reminds us that “[T]here was virtually nothing in American society to support a black person who wanted to live a life of the mind, a life of ideas, except perhaps the Communist Party where most black intellectuals and thinkers cut their teeth in this country before 1970.”

Reconstruction of Detroit’s proud reputation as a tolerant, progressive promoter of individual freedom (1st state to eliminate the death penality, and home of the 8 hour work day) and liberty is threatened by the continued deterioration in Michigan’s economic climate. Michigan needs to nurture that intellectual, bi-racial, life of the mind necessary to recapture its position as a leading defender of human values. Unfortunately, preparation for this difficult task requires that we work through those malformed and crippled embarrassments we once believed to be ideas. Dostoyevsky wrote that, “Every man has reminiscences that he would not tell to everyone but only his friends. He has other matters in his mind that he would not reveal even to his friends, but only to himself, and that in secret. But there are other things that a man is afraid to tell even to himself, and every decent man has a number of such things stored away in his mind.” As decent citizens, let’s work together in developing a community where a “life of the mind” is available for all its citizens.

]]> By: Lester Spence http://blacksmythe.com/blog/2007/05/30/40-years-after-the-rebellion/#comment-4277 Lester Spence Fri, 01 Jun 2007 15:40:38 +0000 http://blacksmythe.com/blog/2007/05/30/40-years-after-the-rebellion/#comment-4277 plez i think you should read boggs again. i believe i know what your perspective is based on reading your own blog, but perhaps you are reading YOUR perspective into BOGGS perspective. here for example let's turn to what government actually does. even at a local level, government enforces contracts, generates contracts, provides services, withholds services, and possess a variety of institutional mechanisms that can either subjugate or empower. if black detroiters would've focused on ownership rather than political control, i'm not sure how they overcome the institutional hurdles they would have faced by not running the government. the first things that coleman young did when he was elected was integrate the police department, and then aggressively institute set asides for blacks AND women. he single handedly created over 100 black millionaires by this act alone. dave bing, don barden, della barden, among them. i believe the economics vs. politics argument is a non-starter. and this is one of the things that boggs is urging us to turn away from. which brings me to my man submariner. i don't think that boggs is talking about turning her back on capitalism as much as she is about recapturing and reframing LOCAL space. plez i think you should read boggs again. i believe i know what your perspective is based on reading your own blog, but perhaps you are reading YOUR perspective into BOGGS perspective.

here for example let’s turn to what government actually does. even at a local level, government enforces contracts, generates contracts, provides services, withholds services, and possess a variety of institutional mechanisms that can either subjugate or empower.

if black detroiters would’ve focused on ownership rather than political control, i’m not sure how they overcome the institutional hurdles they would have faced by not running the government. the first things that coleman young did when he was elected was integrate the police department, and then aggressively institute set asides for blacks AND women.

he single handedly created over 100 black millionaires by this act alone. dave bing, don barden, della barden, among them.

i believe the economics vs. politics argument is a non-starter. and this is one of the things that boggs is urging us to turn away from.

which brings me to my man submariner. i don’t think that boggs is talking about turning her back on capitalism as much as she is about recapturing and reframing LOCAL space.

]]> By: plez... http://blacksmythe.com/blog/2007/05/30/40-years-after-the-rebellion/#comment-4275 plez... Fri, 01 Jun 2007 15:33:56 +0000 http://blacksmythe.com/blog/2007/05/30/40-years-after-the-rebellion/#comment-4275 you wrote: "Whites, fearing what a black run city would look like, in effect took their marbles and fled." plez sez: this happened in city after city around the US beginning in the late 1960's... it happened in the North, it happened in the South, it happened out West. and has the "rebellion" wrought? we have some Black run cities, but do we have any Black owned cities?!? if our emphasis had been on ownership (rather than mayoralships), i'm not convinced that white flight would have had a negative impact on our inner cities. now we see a trend reversal, where white folk are slowly (but surely) coming back to reclaim what they fled over the past 40 years. they still own the cities, now they're coming back to run them again: * Atlanta, which next year will probably have its first serious white mayoral candidate in 30 years, * New Orleans, which during its next election cycle will probably elect its first white mayor in over 20 years, and * NYC, which has had a string of Republican white mayors over the past 10 years as Boggs stated, we must turn our backs on those traditional and failed escape routes, and begin looking inward for solutions to our societal issues. you wrote: “Whites, fearing what a black run city would look like, in effect took their marbles and fled.”

plez sez: this happened in city after city around the US beginning in the late 1960’s… it happened in the North, it happened in the South, it happened out West. and has the “rebellion” wrought? we have some Black run cities, but do we have any Black owned cities?!?

if our emphasis had been on ownership (rather than mayoralships), i’m not convinced that white flight would have had a negative impact on our inner cities. now we see a trend reversal, where white folk are slowly (but surely) coming back to reclaim what they fled over the past 40 years. they still own the cities, now they’re coming back to run them again:
* Atlanta, which next year will probably have its first serious white mayoral candidate in 30 years,
* New Orleans, which during its next election cycle will probably elect its first white mayor in over 20 years, and
* NYC, which has had a string of Republican white mayors over the past 10 years

as Boggs stated, we must turn our backs on those traditional and failed escape routes, and begin looking inward for solutions to our societal issues.

]]> By: Submariner http://blacksmythe.com/blog/2007/05/30/40-years-after-the-rebellion/#comment-4147 Submariner Thu, 31 May 2007 22:09:14 +0000 http://blacksmythe.com/blog/2007/05/30/40-years-after-the-rebellion/#comment-4147 Dr. Spence, based on your reading list I recently picked up In a Shade of Blue by Eddie S. Glaude Jr. Boggs seems to be advocating what Glaude calls a pragmatic stance. Glaude writes that monuments of the past "threaten(s) to constrain our ability reimagine black political action". They both see blacks as inextricably linked with the fate of the nation and call for robust participation in the democratic process. But I wonder how pragmatic it is on her part to abjure capitalism and religion? Although I'm an apostate Christian, for many like Cornel West or the late Howard Thurman religious belief underpins their commitment to social justice and provides the framework for rational deliberation. And I'm no economist or political theorist but what practical alternative to capitalism exists to provide for our material needs? Dr. Spence, based on your reading list I recently picked up In a Shade of Blue by Eddie S. Glaude Jr. Boggs seems to be advocating what Glaude calls a pragmatic stance. Glaude writes that monuments of the past “threaten(s) to constrain our ability reimagine black political action”. They both see blacks as inextricably linked with the fate of the nation and call for robust participation in the democratic process.

But I wonder how pragmatic it is on her part to abjure capitalism and religion? Although I’m an apostate Christian, for many like Cornel West or the late Howard Thurman religious belief underpins their commitment to social justice and provides the framework for rational deliberation.

And I’m no economist or political theorist but what practical alternative to capitalism exists to provide for our material needs?

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