The Crisis For African American Gender Relations

Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University
The Crisis of African American Gender Relations

Author(s): Bell Hooks, Michele Wallace, Andrew Hacker, Jared Taylor, Derrick Bell,
Ishmael Reed, Nathan Hare, Rita Williams, Cecilia Caruso, Carl H. Nightingale, Jim Sleeper,
Elsie B. Washington, Yehudi Webster, Kenneth S. Tollett, Sr. and Cecil Brown
Source: Transition, No. 66 (1995), pp. 91-175
Published by: Indiana University Press on behalf of the Hutchins Center for African and
African American Research at Harvard University
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Symposium ( T R A N SITION
THE CRISIS OF
AFRICAN AMERICAN
GENDER RELATIONS
A symposium on the crisis of gender relations among African Americans
PROSPECTUS
"As long as African Americans remained

women], while not strictly incorrect, ob-
scures more than it illuminates."
outsiders, we were forced to concentrate
Patterson
on the central issue of getting in and, in argues that despite the le-
gitimately
the process, to downplay the many prob- disturbing social realities-
lems that beset us internally. I think the
most notably the feminization of pover-
ty-facing African American women, the
time has come to confront these problems
squarely. When we do so, we findsocial
thatstatistics
at on young African Amer-
the top of this internal racial agenda
ican menisare shocking: that they are far
the crisis-ridden problem of gender
behindre-
not only their white male coun-
lations between African American men terparts but also significantly worse off
than African American women. Adduc-
and women." In his article, "Blacklash,"
in Transition 62, Harvard Professor of So-
ing a series of dire statistics, Patterson
claims that young black men "die at a
ciology Orlando Patterson argues that the
higher rate of natural causes and epidem-
failure to address this crisis is due in large
ics like AIDS; are far more likely to be
part to the tendency of black feminists
the victims of homicide at each other's
"to confine, and confound, the problems
of gender-which concerns both males and hands; and are incarcerated, addicted, and
females in their relations with each oth- drop out of high school-all at consid-
er-with those of women's issues, or, erably greater rates than women. Most
ominous of all, African American men
when relational problems are considered,
not only perform far more poorly than
to privilege the standpoint of women, on
the assumption that they are always theAfrican American women at all levels of
victims of the interaction." He goes on
the school system, but are now to be found
to claim that "the double burden argu-
at substantially lower, and declining lev-
els, at the tertiary level of education so
ment [that black women are doubly op-
pressed, as African Americans and ascrucial for any kind of success in the wider
TRANSITION ISSUE 66 91
society." The result, he said, was that Af- and mother: an anxiety amplified by prev-
rican American women with four years alent styles of child-rearing among lower-
of college were already earning more than class blacks in the absence of fathers.
white women, and were fast approaching Gender relations among members of
the median income of black men. Finally, the black middle class are differently
Patterson examines the statistics on sui- strained, he went on to argue. Patterson
cide: that young African American mencited statistics that African American mar-
commit suicide at a rate almost five times riages are twice as likely to end in divorce
greater than African American women ofas white marriages, a tremendous cultural
the same age group, and that figure in- shift from the era (from Reconstruction
creases if "victim precipitated" homicide until the mid-twentieth century) when
is included. black marriages were actually more du-
Patterson argues that these statistics rable than those of whites. Patterson at-
serve to complicate theories of gendered tributes this pattern to two related devel-
oppression: that since the days of slavery, opments: the scarcity of marriageable men
it has always been the case that "whereas and the increased economic independence
the burdens of poor African American men of black women. These two factors com-
have always been oppressive, dispiriting, bine to undermine the institution of mar-
demoralizing, and soul-killing, those ofriage: black men, whose median incomes
women have always been, at least partly, are nearly identical to their black female
generative, empowering, and humaniz- counterparts, have a much smaller dis-
ing." Slavery could not destroy the insti- incentive to divorce than white males,
tution of motherhood the way it de- who stand to lose their home and a por-
stroyed black masculinity, he avers; fur- tion of their income. Patterson claimed
thermore, the long association of African that expectations for marriage vary along
American women and domestic work has gender lines, as well. Where black mid-
been as much a source of cultural capital dle-class men tend to marry for compan-
as a burden. ionship and love, black middle-class
Patterson also describes the gendered women emphasize instrumental or prag-
implications of the contemporary stylesmatic factors such as financial stability and
of young black masculinity among the other forms of security.
underclass-"the murderous aggressive- Patterson accounts for the divergent,
ness and self-destructive violence, the hy-class-specific behaviors and pathologies of
perkinetic posturing and violent bragga- present day African American life as leg-
docio, and the misogynistic abuse ofacies of the "centuries-long holocaust of
women and identification of manliness slavery and its most devastating impact:
with impregnation and the abandonmentthe ethnocidal assault on gender roles and
relations between black men and wom-
of mothers." Reading the inscription of
the trope "motherfucker" in black lower-en." While middle-class black males
class culture, especially the practice of sig-identify with the white paternalist ide-
nifying, Patterson argues that various hy-ology of the plantation (a development
perbolic masculine behaviors were symp-Patterson finds still at work in the iden-
toms of separation anxiety between sontification of freedom with manhood and
92 TRANSITION ISSUE 66
sexual domination in, among other ex- FEMINIST TRANSFORMATION
amples, the revolutionary ideology of the
Black Muslims), the heartless, nihilistic bell hooks
behavior of underclass males traces back
through lower-class heroes like Stagger Only those African Americans who have
Lee to the "'bad niggers' of Southern resolutely refused to hear the words of
planter lore." progressive black women and men speak-
Patterson frames his analysis of Afri- ing about the crisis of gender relations in
can American gender relations with a dis- black life for the last twenty years believe,
cussion of the Clarence Thomas-Anita as Orlando Patterson contends at the end
Hill controversy. Patterson describes the

of his essay "Blacklash," that "a full rec-
ognition of this problem-and its pro-
Thomas-Hill hearings as a watershed in
motion to the top of the agenda of issues
American history: "For the first time, the
for dispassionate study, public discourse,
most intimate problems of white men and
and change-has been a consequence of
women, how they conduct their gender
the Thomas-Hill hearings." Indeed, it is
relations in and out of the workplace,
the intense collective sexism of African
could now be seen in terms of people who
happen to be African American. The American men and women that has rel-
egated the gender crisis in black relations

hearings, and the controversies they ig-
to the status of an unimportant agenda-
nited, were a powerful expression of the
cultural-symbolic change that had taken
until white patriarchy turned the spot-
light on the issue. Suddenly, the Thomas
place in America with respect to the final
acceptance of blacks as integral-even hearings
if motivated masses of black men
still greatly disadvantaged-members of
(and some women) who daily turn a deaf
ear to gender issues to enter the discus-
society." The hearings also served to cat-
sion. Like Patterson, however, they did
alyze discussion of the problem of gender
relations among African Americans, the
not enter the discussion to seek a greater
"poisoned relationship" that obtains be-
understanding of the crisis, to critically
tween black women and men of all class- interrogate whether or not patriarchy (the
institutionalized system of male domi-

es. Any attempt to alter conditions in such
nation) is at the heart of the dilemma
an intimate, complex, and ideologically
black women and men face. They came
fraught area of black life must emphasize
armed with the rhetoric of an anti-fem-
behavioral factors, individual will, and
cultural, moral, and attitudinal transfor-
inist backlash, without even taking the
mations. "We can only reclaim ourselves
time to study and consider either the de-
by first reclaiming our past, individually
structive impact of patriarchal thinking
in black life or to contemplate whether
and collectively," Patterson writes. "And
or not conversion to feminist politics
we can only do so by returning to its trau-
matic source and in an orphic grasp might
of be a constructive way to address
this crisis.
self-liberation come to say, as the widow
of Malcolm X said recently at Harvard, Patterson cavalierly appropriates my
that everything we are, and have been, work
is in feminist theory (especially the
all 'because of us.' " observation that black feminist thought
GENDER RELATIONS 93
has had little impact on African American critical responses to his essay. This at-
politics) to support his anti-feminist sen- mosphere of an opportunistic spectacle
timent. He conveniently drops the part highlights the unwillingness on the part
of my discussion that holds sexist black of patriarchal black males (and their white
male leaders responsible for deflecting male associates) to acknowledge that pro-
black feminist critique. Uncritical alle- moting anti-feminism actually adds to the
giance to patriarchal thinking and behav- sexist exploitation and oppression that is
ior on the part of the vast majority of already endemic to black life in America.
black males who dominate both the pro- Patterson's essay is anti-feminist propa-
duction and dissemination of African ganda in blackface, masking itself as an
American political thought leads to the
objective, "dispassionate" (to use his term)
study-deploying a rhetoric of care and
Patterson's essay is compassion. In actuality, he appropriates

the issues in ways that place him in the
anti-feminist
limelight but do not intervene in a con-
propaganda in structive way on the crisis in black gender
blackface relations.
When I describe this piece as anti-fem-

inist, I mean that it is not written from a
devaluing, silencing, and/or subordina-
tion of the voices of black folks whostandpoint
ad- that presumes sexism and sex-
vocate feminist politics. I can thinkist
ofoppression
no are central to the mainte-
better recent example of this than the of destructive patriarchal hierar-
nance
chies
publication in Transition of Orlando Pat-in black life and therefore must be
terson's essay. The black male publishers

transformed by an anti-sexist politics. In-
stead,
and editors of the journal who decide itsthe underlying premise of "Black-
lash"to
content clearly felt it was appropriate is that patriarchy is not problem-
atic-that black women and men can solve
give this anti-feminist essay major "play."
our gender crisis within the existing social
To date, Transition has given no pro-fem-
inist article about the crisis of genderframework.
re- Patriarchy is a word that is
lations in black life such a forum. And not evoked in Patterson's piece as an in-
stitutionalized structure of domination
even though established feminist thinkers
harmful
like myself were asked to respond to this to both black women and men.
piece, our ideas, words, thoughts, are al-In keeping with traditional sexist black
male erasure of revolutionary feminist
ready subordinated to that of Patterson's
anti-feminist voice. theory, patriarchy and male domination
The editors at Transition could just asare identified as a central cause of the gen-
have easily given equal space to a pro-der crisis in black life. Patterson asserts:
"Black men and women of all classes have
feminist perspective on black gender re-
a poisoned relationship. Slavery and the
lations when they first accepted the Pat-
system of racial oppression brewed and
terson piece. Had they made this choice,
they would have forfeited the attention-
first injected that poisoning, and poverty
grabbing atmosphere of a sensationalist
along with racism, prolongs it." With this
thesis, Patterson seeks to efface all the
spectacle that is created by the request for
work done by black feminist thinkers to Theory: From Margin to Center as to wheth-
highlight the ways in which the conver- er or not disenfranchised black men who
gence of racism and sexism creates ten- have not internalized the values of the
sions in black gender relations. He con- existing social structure (and who have
tinues the strategy of silencing that keeps been unable to find employment) might
black men and women stuck, unable to have more positive self-esteem than their
engage the gender crisis in a manner that black female counterparts, women whose
moves the discussion forward. There can limited acceptance within that structure
be no constructive dialogue between black requires passive acquiescence to the status
males and females about the gender crisis quo. Why are we to assume that these
in black life as long as black men deny black men are more unfulfilled than their
the reality of sexism and sexist oppression. female counterparts? All the advantages,
Patterson's strategically undocument- Patterson concludes, that black women
ed insistence that there are ways that black have within the existing structure (and he
females benefit from the existing social often fails to acknowledge that he only
structure of white supremacist capitalist talks about professional black females) can
patriarchy merely distorts reality. Most of be perceived as "advantages" only if one
his examples of the advantages black fe- internalizes without question the values
males have are only sometimes true for of the existing social structure. For ex-
bourgeois black females. Even his relent- ample: starting from the assumption that
less barbs and attacks on black feminist patriarchal notions of motherhood are in-
thought are based solely on his privileg- trinsically negative for women, it would
ing of scholarship written by bourgeoisbe impossible to assert that black females
feminists. For example, he charges that forced to assume this role by white su-
"black feminists, who dominate the dis-premacist capitalist patriarchy, whether
course" tend to approach relational prob- they want to or not, are somehow more
lems with the "assumption that they are privileged than their male counterparts
always the victims of the interaction."
Citing no examples, this statement cer-
There is so much
tainly cannot be documented by my work
or that of other revolutionary black fem- mother-blame in
inist thinkers (Audre Lorde, Angela Da- Patterson's essay that
vis, Michele Wallace, and others). Con-
it's frightening
currently, his suggestion that there "has
been a greater willingness to accept black
women than black men in dominant so- who are not compelled to assume equal
ciety" ignores the reality that this accep-responsibility for parenting. Here it is also
tance (when it occurs) is rooted in theuseful to point out that Patterson endorses
assumption that black females can be more without question the notion that patri-
easily subordinated and subjugated thanarchal father-headed households are the
their black male counterparts. most healthy context in which to raise
Thinking counter-hegemonically, I children. He makes the assumption in spite
raised the question early on in Feministof the fact that feminist work on white
GENDER RELATIONS 95
families shows how destructive and dys- answers this question by suggesting that
functional the white patriarchal family is. white supremacist capitalist patriarchy
None of the feminist research on black "works" for black females in a way that
mothers and daughters substantiates Pat- it does not for black males. Much of his
terson's claim that female parents are more data is distorted and does not take into
abusive towards male children than fe- consideration the concrete reality of black
male. Indeed, much of that work high- female life, particularly our experience as
lights the abuse of female children by heads of households. Even if I accept his
mothers. While I agree with him that thesis, I would have to add that those
abuses abound in black parenting, I have black women who thrive within the ex-
found no data that substantiates his claim isting structure usually do so at great psy-
that male children are more likely to be chological cost. Many of the black pro-
abused than female children. Concur- fessional women I know are successful in
rently, given that black females do most terms of their jobs and material life, but
of the parenting in black life, it is onlysuffering in their mental health. For years
logical that this group is held more ac-conservative black males have insisted that
countable for abuses. Studies of black fam- the black female's proximity to whiteness
ilies where males are present, where abuseis always an advantage. They refuse to
also occurs, would be the only way to look at the ways this closeness has resulted
know whether mothers are more inclined in exploitation and abuse.
to abuse children, especially their male All too often Patterson judges quality
children, than fathers. Significantly, Pat-of life by material privilege and profes-
terson does not consider the possibilitysional status. Let us imagine a successful
that black females forced into the role ofprofessional black female who makes an
mothering against their will via patriar- income of thirty thousand a year. She is
chal socialization might be abusive as aa single parent with two children to sup-
way of rebelling against this role. Sexistport. Her estranged husband has a service
and misogynist thinking has alwaysjob where he makes only fifteen thousand
blamed mothers for the psychological di-dollars a year but pays no child support.
lemmas males face. (There is so much He shares an apartment or house with a
mother-blame in Patterson's essay that it's live-in girlfriend. On paper, the black fe-
frightening.) At no point in his essay does male might appear to be more successful.
he seek to explore the reasons black malesIn actuality her life may be nowhere near
have shown so little interest in parenting.as satisfying as that of her estranged male
Nor does he ever ponder whether or not partner. She may have no control over
patriarchal constructions of masculinitytime, no money left after meeting the
are healthy models for black men. needs of her household. Imagine further
Patterson poses the question: "If Af- that this couple separated because the black
rican American women suffer the double male had internalized sexist thinking and
or triple burden we so often hear about, could not accept that his female partner
what explains their relatively better po- made more money than he. Now the black
sition on important indicators when com-female in question would not be where
pared with African American men?" He she is in life had she not rebelled, to some
extent, against the sexist socialization that Reading essays by black males or fe-
taught her that the ideal female position males who cling to the false assumption
is to be supported by a male provider. that black family life can be sustained by
Maybe she harbors contempt for him be- our collective embrace of patriarchal val-
cause he earns less. The problems in this ues and norms, I fear for our future. In-
family then would not be engendered by creasingly, I witness more and more black
racist thinking but rather sexism-patri- females choosing to critique sexism,
archal thought and behavior. choosing to work on personal self-recov-
Concurrently, many progressive in- ery in ways that estrange us from black
dividual black women, and here I would male counterparts who have not made
include myself, have fared better within these choices, who are more obsessed with
the existing social structure than some of material acquisition and professional sta-
our male peers, precisely because we re- tus and have no desire to challenge pa-
pudiate patriarchal values. Opposing white triarchy. It is this split that is exacerbat-
supremacist capitalist patriarchy is a cen- ing, in a grievous way, the tensions that
tral factor enabling us to cope in a more have historically existed between black
constructive and productive way within women and men. Imagine if you will all
the culture. If the vast majority of black the ways black gender relations would be
transformed if black men and women
would collectively oppose conventional

If racist domination patriarchal thinking that supports and
ended tomorrow, condones male domination. What would
African American it mean for black gender relations, if black

males were raised to think that self-ac-
males and females
tualization, learning to be self-aware and
would still be suffering
loving, is more important than profes-
a crisis in gender sional standing and material success. To
relations think this way, black males would have
to challenge sexism. What would it mean
for black gender relations if black males
males were more critical of patriarchal
were investing in a vision of relationships
thinking and behavior, more willing to on mutual partnership and equality
based
rather than domination and coercive hi-
engage alternative notions of kinship,
erarchy? If racist domination ended to-
family, etc., more open to embracing
feminist thinking and practice, gender morrow
re- and the structure of sexism and
lations would constructively improve in oppression remained intact in black

sexist
life, African American males and females
black life. These same males might func-
tion more productively within the exist-
would still be suffering a crisis in gender
relations. While Patterson is at times
ing social structure by cultivating oppos-
itionial behavior, because they wouldwilling
no to critique misogyny and male
longer be trying to succeed using a sexual
pa- exploitation and domination of
triarchal model of success that is doomed
women in black life, he never suggests a
to fail. paradigm for social transformation
GENDER RELATIONS 97
whereby this thinking would be trans- lating the nature of that assault and de-
formed. It is this critical gap in his essay veloping redemptive strategies for resis-
that renders his agenda suspect. If he is tance and transformation that we can re-
really concerned about addressing this cri- solve the crisis of black gender relations.
sis, why does he not tell readers how we
could rid black life of the tragedies caused
by sexist black male domination? Patter-
NEITHER FISH NOR FOWL
son is too eager to put down and trash
bourgeois feminist thought to suggest that
Michele Wallace
revolutionary feminist theory, particular-
ly the work of black females, provides I think "Blacklash" is a wonderful and
useful models of social change that can important piece from the author of the
empower black males and females. groundbreaking study in comparative so-
In keeping with sexist devaluation of ciology, Slavery and Social Death. It has
feminist thinking that is often an unin- always been among my fondest dreams,
formed response, Patterson asserts, "con- as a black feminist, to get black scholars
temporary African American feminist and intellectuals of Orlando Patterson's
thought has badly obscured our under- superb caliber to think seriously and write
standing of gender relations." There is a publically about black gender relations.
grave difference between the feminist But I find it fascinating that he suggests
thought of reformist black women who that the effect of the Thomas-Hill hear-
have often simply appropriated both the ings was "to bring to the forefront of
rhetoric and agenda of their white coun- national consciousness the critical issue of
terparts, and the critical visions of revo- gender relations in modern America." For
lutionary black female thinkers on the me, and for many other feminists like me,
Left. Patterson's willingness to lump all this issue has been at the fore of my life
black women who advocate feminist for almost as long as I can remember.
For the most part, I agree with the
thinking together, even though our per-
spectives are not the same, is one ofassertions
the that Patterson makes in this ar-
many rhetorical gestures that highlight

ticle, and it warms my heart to witness a
the anti-feminist thinking that is at prominent
the black male speaking on some
of these issues. I have always been pow-
heart of this essay. Truthfully, revolu-
tionary visionary feminist thinkingerfully
by moved by his perspective on just
black females and males is one of the few
about everything (excluding his conten-
tious take on the Hill-Thomas confron-
places we can turn for an account of black
gender relations that does not seek totation
pit on the Op-Ed page of the New York
Times). Patterson writes that the civil
black women and men against one an-
other in an endless, meaningless debate
rights movement was:
about who has suffered more. This work
courageously acknowledges that white

a strugglefor the final abolition of slavery,for
supremacist capitalist patriarchy assaults
the recognition of the black as a constituent
the psyches of black males and females
member of his or her community.... these
alike. It is only by constructively articu-
hearings were a powerful symbolic confirma-
tion of thefact that race, while still important, conjunction with constructions of mas-
is of radically changing significance. However culinity.
unequally we may be treated, we are now very Patterson does not concur when he ob-
much a central part of this society. serves that a problem in this kind of in-
vestigation has been "the tendency of
I couldn't agree more. In fact, I would black feminists, who dominate the dis-
really like to distribute copies of this ar- course, to confine and confound, the
ticle to the entire faculty of CUNY, where problems of gender-which concerns
I teach, because the fairly subtle argument both males and females in their relations
he is making about black families and with each other-with those of women's
gender relations is beyond most of them issues, or, when relational problems are
considered, to privilege the standpoint of
I no longer see black women, on the assumption that they are

always the victims of the interaction. Black
feminism as the
men have as much at stake...."
discourse of
Well, my response to that is that I no
victimization longer see black feminism as the discourse
of victimization. Indeed, I view feminism
and victimization as somewhat antithet-
and because many of our students are
trapped in the divisive, demoralizing
ical, which may be exactly why black
structure he describes. feminism today is such an odd and frail
I have always considered the exami-
creature, not quite fish or fowl. Even I, a
nation of black gender relations to be one
black feminist for twenty-four years, can't
quite make it out. I certainly wouldn't
of the definitive occupations of black fem-
inism. Although I have never had a attempt
lot to define it in a monolithic way.
of company in this particular camp,Many
it black women who practice a brand
seems to me that while most feminists of feminism can't even agree upon calling
(mostly white but including a growingthemselves feminists. At the M.I.T. con-
ference on black women in academia a
number of women of color) don't talk
much about everyday empirical relationsyear ago, and in most gatherings of black
between men and women, there is a great
feminists, one rarely hears the word fem-
deal of speculation about historical, cul-
inism. It is still a divisive word among
tural, and psychological constructions ofblack women. The fact that we don't gen-
gender and how they affect myths and
erally use the word feminism to describe
realities of both masculinity and feminin-
our meetings masks deep schisms in our
ity. In contemporary feminist discourse
ranks which we find impossible to dis-
in the circles I frequent, which is amongcuss-along class lines, along cultural
cultural critics, legal scholars, art histo-
lines, along educational lines, and along
rians, anthropologists, sociologists, biol-
lines of sexual preference.
ogists, and film scholars, discussions of A perfect example would be the pre-
female gender and its construction rarely
liminary response of black women to An-
fail to take into account that constructionsita Hill's claims at the hearing. Educated
of female gender need to be thought in

professionals and/or intellectuals over-
GENDER RELATIONS 99
whelmingly sided with Hill. Most work- Patterson is right, it seems to me, that
ing-class sisters and middle-class black poor black men find themselves in a soul-
women from working-class backgrounds killing dilemma. My one caveat would
sided with Thomas. I suspect that gay be-and this should not be a competi-
black women sided with Hill and hetero- tion-that young black girls are experi-
sexual black women were somewhat more encing the death of the soul, as well. The
inclined to side with Thomas. This dif- suicide figures, the ones which suggest
ference in opinions among black womenthat black men have the highest rate of
(like everything else having to do withsuicide and that black women have the
black women) was never explored any- lowest, are persuasive; but it seems to me
where in the press, so far as I can tell. there are other ways to kill the self besides
deliberate sucide. Last fall the New York
Times featured a series on 129th Street in
Patterson seems
Harlem, and the thing that struck me most
preoccupied with the
about it was how interrelated gender def-
impact of the history
initions were in the destruction of that
of slavery community. I mean for every father who

won't marry and who is crippled or in-
On the other hand, it is true that blackas a result of his participation
carcerated
feminism often inadvertently privileges
in the drug trade, there is also a mother
who
the standpoint of women, just as has no idea how she'll provide for
I would
expect Patterson to privilege the stand- she's having and who finds
the children
point of men. In "Blacklash" Icrack
wasand alcohol a welcome relief from
not
the realities
disappointed in this regard. I don't want of her existence.
I would also note that Patterson tends
to quibble with most of his arguments,
to viewhave
including the idea that black women gender relations through a het-
erosexual
certain cultural advantages in the domi-lense. Using the work of cul-
nant society. What I am interested in is
tural critic and literary theorist Eve Ko-
accounting for this situation, where
sofsky some
Sedgwick in The Epistemology of the
black women have a certain advantage
Closet and Tendencies, one comes to realize
(which results in their higher educational
that the realities of individual subjectivity
rate and the other indicators of success can involve a huge number of subtle dif-
Patterson points out) at the same time thatferentiations and permutations of gender
the plight of poor black women has be-and sexuality, most of which we've barely
come graver, and seemingly intractable.begun to acknowledge or explore. As
According to the black female historianSedgwick points out, everybody is differ-
Patricia Morton, in her book Disfiguringent. Patterson needs to consider the psy-
Images: The Historical Assault on the Black chological present more. Instead he seems
Woman, "Mammy," the dominant ster-preoccupied with the impact of the his-
eotype of the black woman since the latetory of slavery. I would agree that slavery
nineteenth century, conveys a culturalis still extremely important, but the re-
weight which is empirically real and, atality is that when you're poor and black,
the same time, mythologically perni- male or female, it is still very hard to have
cious. any identity as an individual, psycholog-
ically. Not only doesn't the white dom- plores are in fact supra-racial. During the
inant culture allow it, your family, your last several decades, white men have
community, your political, intellectual, shown a diminished sense of obligation
and cultural leaders don't usually allow it towards the women they marry and the
either. I don't want to argue with the children they sire. We are observing what
specific hypotheses he makes about what Stanley Lebergott once called "men's lib-
is motivating the self-destruction of black eration": the freedom of fathers to depart,
men or how it works. Some of them seem without serious cost or social censure. If
a little far-fetched, while others seem bril- we start with 1950, clearly a more con-
liant and inspired to me, such as the idea nubial age, Table A shows we now have
that black macho "street culture acts as a three-and-a-half times as many white
belated, but savagely effective means of families with no husband in the house.
breaking with the mother." The point is What is especially interesting is that the
that he is proceeding in the right direction white and black figures have been rising
and that we need to be thinking along in tandem. While the ratio of black wom-
these lines. Granted, it came into my mind en-headed households remains discerni-
whether or not he had any real experience bly higher, the important story is that
of black life in the streets, and it would white and black men have been fleeing
have been helpful if he had filled in that the confines of fatherhood at essentially
blank; still, in general, I find the effort the same rate. Could it be that white men
Patterson has made to understand black have always envied their black counter-
gender relations an entirely laudable and parts, and now seek a similar release from
praiseworthy one. I hope this work will responsibility? To ask black fathers to
encourage others to take up the debate in show greater discipline carries the impli-
the public sphere. cation that only they have deviated from
national norms. In fact, if Patterson's
strictures are in order, they apply equally
to white Americans.
As it happens, white out-of-wedlock

WE ALL DRINK THE SAME
births have been rising at an even faster
WATER
rate. Whereas in 1950, only about two
percent of white children entered the
Andrew Hacker
world without benefit of marriage, the
Orlando Patterson has chosen to focus on figure is now approaching one in five. But
tensions between black men and women, Table B goes on to reveal that the gap
on their origins and reasons for persis-between the two races is in fact decreas-
tence, and how these stresses affect theing. In 1991, the most recently published
structure of black life. For my part, I feel figures, white non-marital births were not
moved to note that something quite sim-far from the level that Daniel Patrick
ilar may be found among white Ameri-Moynihan once condemned as patholog-
cans. Since white attitudes and behavior ical. More and more unmarried white
cannot be ascribed to slavery or discrim-women, if they find themselves pregnant,

ination based on race, one may wonderare deciding to have and keep and raise
whether the developments Patterson de- their babies on their own. Many of these
GENDER RELATIONS 101
Table A Table B
Households Headed by Women Percentage of Births

Out-of-Wedlock
B:W
Year Black White Ratio B:W
Black White Ratio

1950 17.2% 5.3% 3.2
1970 34.5% 9.6% 3.6 1950 16.8% 1.7% 9.9
1993 58.4% 18.7% 3.1 1970 37.6% 5.7% 6.6
1991 68.2% 18.0% 3.8
mothers belong to a growing white un-
derclass, often in depressed grounds
rustbelt are
coun-
attending college rather
ties. In Davenport, Iowa, 27.8 percent
settling of
for early marriages with men
white babies lack a licensed cannot
father,carry
while on a conversation. Whi
may be
over in Allentown, Pennsylvania, thetoo much to say that they
rate
following
has reached 28.6 percent, and the lead of black women
in Dayton,
seems
Ohio, it is 31.4 percent. Joining thatare
them they are feeling forces
women with careers, some of them black
gripped well- women a good deal earl
known, who opt to become However, whatever lies behind the
single moth-
ers. In most cases, this choice attests of
ambitions to white women, a legacy
their dissatisfaction with the available slavery cannot be invoked as an ex
nation.
supply of mates, an attitude Orlando Pat-
terson found widespread among black If white men are ending their educa-
women.
tions earlier, they are also less of a pres-
ence in
Not the least reason for this the labor force. What were once
dissonance
deemed
is that white women have beentomoving
be "men's jobs" are disap-
pearing,
ahead of men, not only in years ofeither because they have been
formal
schooling, but also in the aspirations
made obsolete byen-
new technologies or due
couraged by increased education. Black
to many positions being opened to wom-
en. Table
women have always had the edge D shows that white women are
in this
regard. As Table C indicates, white
not far wom-
behind black women in an array
of occupational
en now account for 55.1 percent categories. Such lag as
of their
race's enrollment, about there
where black
is results largely from their having
women stood several years ago.
started The later:
working flipback in 1960, white
women
side is that since enrollments comprised
have stayed 32.5 percent of the
constant, they are filling white
seatsworkforce,
once held while the comparable
figure are
by white men, more of whom for black women then was 40.1
failing
percent.
to finish high school or are Each yearout
dropping finds women of both
races
of college without receiving a coming
degree.closer
We to men in annual
earnings.
know that women get better Currently,
grades, andwhite women aged
as a group are more interested 25 toin
34learning.
who have bachelor's degrees
Much of the shift also owes to the fact make $763 for every $1,000 earned by
that more women from blue-collar back- their male classmates. Ratios taken by
Table C Table D
Women's Share of Percentage of Positions

College Enrollments Held by Women
Black White Among Among

White Black
1976 54.5% 47.0%
Workers Workers
1992 61.5% 55.1%
Total Workforce 45.2% 51.0%
themselves would seem to show that black
Professionals 52.6% 65.1%
college women have done better, since
Managers 41.1% 52.2%
they come away with $943 for each
Technical 50.6% 57.3%
$1,000 going to their male counterparts.
Blue Collar 16.2% 24.6%
In fact, black and white college women
Military Officers
have almost identical earnings: $26,338 10.1% 20.5%
Enlisted Personnel
and $26,996. The reason black women 8.9% 14.5%
have a higher ratio is that black men hit

salary ceilings sooner. This is clearly
dents" the as teenagers seek to affirm
occur
case here, since those who completed col- by taking risks they know
their manhood
lege receive $28,338, whilecan
white men
be fatal. More than a few white youths
with the same education end up their
propel withcars as wantonly as their black
$35,403. peers brandish guns. So when the rates
Orlando Patterson brings home
for thesethe
three causes are combined, the
parlous state of black youthsblack
by stressing
multiple falls to 1.6 times the white
the high incidence of suicide. He While
figure. adds despair is more widespread
that what are often recorded as homicide
among black youths-which is hardly
fatalities are in fact "victim surprising-a not dissimilar despondency
precipitated,"
in that many young men inhabit
may bea found
world among whites as well. Too
of violence where they flirt
much
with
emphasis
death on guns in our ghettoes
everyday. Table E shows the depressing
rate of black teenaged homicide deaths,
Table E
which is more than nine times that in-
flicted on white youths. Yet here tooAnnual
the Deaths Among Young Men
races are not as far apart as might first 15 to 19
(Per 100,000 in each racial group)

appear. First of all, the figures reveal that
white teenagers are twice as likely to com-
mit straightforward suicide, ending their B:W
lives in private instead of on the streets. Black White Ratio

And if their most common cause of death
Homicides 92.7 9.6 9.7
comes with their feet on a pedal, Deborah
Suicides 10.3 19.4 0.5
Prothrow-Stith reminds us how much of
Road Crashes 26.2 51.5 0.5
youthful driving is "deliberately reck-
Three Causes 129.2 80.5 1.6
less." Many if not most of these "acci-
can deflect attention from the anxieties ployment, in 1950 over eighty percent of
afflicting all of our teenagers. black households still had two parents in
Mention should also be made of the residence. Many of those not having two
relation between the odds of early death parents resulted from the high odds of
and what Orlando Patterson chooses to widowhood. A similar proportion of ba-
call "lower class promiscuity." Whereasbies were born within wedlock, and at
least some of those not so designated had
he relies heavily on Sigmund Freud, I am
more attracted to Charles Darwin. As we common-law parents. Thus, it seems clear
know, it takes two to create a baby, and that recent increases in transient fathers
young men of both races eschew contra- and homes headed by single mothers can-
ception in order to participate in the pro- not easily be attributed to a plantation
cess. All too often, they feel their lives past. Not only have newer forces taken
are not amounting to much, and siring a hold, but they increasingly cut across ra-
child is a way to show they can do some- cial lines. This is not to downplay the
thing of substance. But something even importance of race. After all, I have de-
more elemental may be involved. Many voted an entire book to the centrality of
youths reside in such lethal surroundings its role in American life. Yet there are
that they cannot feel sure how long they also conditions and constrictions which
will remain alive. Hence the early urge suffuse the entire society. If the two races
to get the next generation started. While often drink from different fountains, they
they may not cite this as their reasoning, still consume the same water.
it is something Darwin would under-
stand: even in the face of vicissitudes, ev-
ery species seeks to ensure its own per-
THESE ANIMAL MEN
petuation.
Orlando Patterson ends his essay with
Jared Taylor
an invocation he calls "Bringing Slavery
Back In." The inclination of all too many In Blacklash, Orlando Patterson tries to
black men "to impregnate and leave blame slavery for the deplorable behav-
women," he argues, should be seen as a ioral characteristic of what is called the
throwback to the behavior of their "stock- underclass. His arguments are uncon-
slave ancestor." Since legal servitude end- vincing and are even undercut by his own
ed well over a century ago, the claim that data. Much more plausible explanations
it continues to exert a force should be exist for the wretched state of the under-
made with some care. Yet it is now ap-

class, and to grope for causes in the im-
parent that arrangements imposed by the
mutable past is just another way of mak-
ing excuses.
owners were never accepted by the slaves
themselves. Once freed, they sought the First, though, let us agree that the near
durable unions they had been denied. For
disappearance of marriage among blacks,
reflected in an illegitimacy rate of nearly
almost a century following the Civil War,
black families remained remarkably sta-
70 percent, is at the heart of much that
has gone wrong. Illegitimacy is one of
ble. As was seen in figures cited earlier,
despite low incomes and uncertain em-
the best predictors of whether a child will
be a school dropout, welfare recipient, or age 17. In the 1980s, he had a six percent
criminal. An entirely typical New York chance.
City study shows that 80 percent of prison In 1965, Daniel Patrick Moynihan
inmates grew up without a father. The caused outrage when he suggested that
question, therefore, is why so many black soaring black illegitimacy rates threat-
children are born to single women. ened the stability of black society. What
Patterson argues that the underclass was the rate that so worried him? Twen-
black is "unable to shake off the one role ty-five percent, double the level of pre-
of value (to the master) thrust upon him vious decades. If slavery caused today's 70
during slavery, that of breeder ..." and percent illegitimacy rate, why is it only
that this leads to "the vicious desire to now that its effects are being felt? Why
impregnate and leave women." Wrong was there so much less illegitimacy in the
on both counts. The main thing a master past, when slavery's effects were presum-
required from his slaves was a hard day's ably more immediate? The answer, of
work; breeding was incidental. If today's course, is that slavery has essentially noth-
blacks were particularly industrious, would ing to do with illegitimacy.
Patterson be evoking the regular work
habits thoughtfully instilled in them by
their slave masters? I doubt it. He has
exaggerated the import of a relatively mi-The real culprit has been pointed out per-
nor aspect of a male slave's life to makesuasively by Charles Murray in his 1984
it central to black behavior today. book, Losing Ground. It was Great Society
At the same time, it serves no purposewelfare "entitlements" that rewrote the
to write about "vicious" desires. The male laws of human society, removed the pen-
desire to impregnate women-even manyalties for reckless procreation, and plunged

women-is a biological fact that threat-a sickeningly large number of blacks (and
ens every society. As we shall see, the tasknow whites) into familial chaos. Loos-
is to deal with human nature, not to rail
about how "vicious" it is.
Once the social props
As for Patterson's view that slavery ac-
are knocked out from
counts for current rates of illegitimacy,
the most obvious argument against it is under the institution of
the fact that black family structure- marriage, our animal
which was quite strong immediately after nature takes over
slavery-has collapsed only in the last few
decades. As Mr. Patterson himself points
out, in 1940, young black men were moreened morals at all levels of society gave
likely to be married than young white single motherhood the patina of progres-
men. He also concedes that even under sive daring, but welfare provided the fi-
slavery, most black children grew up in
nancial support without which progres-
the care of an adult couple. In the 1950s,sive daring would have been nothing but
a black child had a 52 percent chance of
squalid drudgery.
living with both biological parents until It is unfashionable to say so, but for
any society to survive, it must control the the sky as soon as she has an illegitimate
sexual appetites of adolescents. If the teen- child?
aged libido is given free rein, no woman It was black social structure that crum-
is likely to reach her twenties-much less bled first under the onslaught of welfare
marry-without getting pregnant. because blacks were poorer than whites
In previous decades, there was enor- and gave up less potential income by go-
mous pressure on young women not to ing on welfare. In California, a welfare
have children out of wedlock, and for good mother with two children gets benefits
reason. A woman and child, cast off withthat are the equivalent of a $25,000-a-
out a legal claim to a man's support, were year salary-without the inconvenience
likely to be completely dependent on oth- of working. For anyone whose immediate
ers. Before welfare, this meant a humil- prospects are a minimum wage job, this
iating search for charity from family or is fantastically attractive.
strangers.
Americans were so loathe to suffer the
stigma of illegitimacy or the economic

burdens of fatherless children, that they Sex is fun, and women love babies. Take
strictly regulated the sex lives of their away the powerful constraints on forni-
children. Chaperones, shot-gun wed- cation that every society must have in or-
dings, horse-whippings, and an emphasis der to survive, and the result is the reckless
on pre-marital chastity were all part of procreation that has produced America's
society's elaborate and successful effort to underclass.
control the adolescent libido. Slavery has nothing to do with it. En-
Welfare changed everything. Now, gland has bred a white underclass exactly
instead of social opprobrium and meageras we have. In America, whites and His-
sustenance at the hands of furious rela- panics are now joining blacks as members
tives, what is in store for the unwed teen- of a hereditary welfare class.
aged mother? A steady paycheck, an Patterson's evocation of slavery is just
apartment of her own, free medical care, another variant of the whites-are-respon-
and food stamps. It is not a glorious ex- sible-for-everything-that-goes-wrong-
istence, but it is a bearable one. These for-us argument without which so many
benefits are, in effect, rewards for doingblacks seem unable to get through the
the most irresponsible thing a young day. Of course, if he really wants to blame
woman can possibly do: bring a childwhites, there are targets more legitimate
whom she cannot support into the world. and useful than long-dead Southerners.
Once the social props are knocked out White liberals-many of them still very
from under the institution of marriage, much alive-enacted the welfare pro-
our animal nature takes over. Why shouldgrams that are the medium in which un-
a man bother with marriage if he can getderclass degeneracy breeds.
plenty of sex and even father children Unfortunately, many blacks will de-
without it? Why should a woman waitfend welfare to the death because it trans-
for marriage if economic independence fers money from whites to blacks. Eight-
(at least from her parents) drops out ofeen percent of the black population is on
welfare as opposed to 2.9 percent of to intervene in any significant way (save
whites, with blacks slightly outnumber- to build more prisons and hire more po-
ing whites even in absolute terms. lice), a massive form of self-help in the
Welfare is, however, a poisoned gift psychological as well as the economic and
that has ravaged black society. Those most political areas is the only answer. Here,
dependent on it would eventually benefit "Blacklash" is long on admonition and
most from its abolition. pathetically short on plans or suggestions.
He condemns a "new man" model as so
much "Afro-centric mumbo-jumbo." But

he cites with approval Franz Fanon's
THE BLACK SEDITION PAPERS
statement that "Revolution begins with
the self, in the self." I agree, but his "cold
Derrick Bell
turkey" antidote for racism's poison
When I read Professor Orlando Patter- sounds hollow after two dozen pages of
son's article, "Blacklash: The Crisis of uncontextualized condemnation. Only
Gender Relations Among African Amer- one thing is easy to predict about "Black-
icans," my reaction was to question rather lash": many whites will hail it as coura-
than compliment his closely structured geous and welcome it as comforting.
work. For whom, I wondered-and not Blacks will find it deeply troubling and
the first time-does Patterson write? Pat- condemn it as one more burden to bear.
terson has a fine mind and is a nationally I have not made a practice of publicly
recognized scholar. And yet, his work has questioning the writings of Professor Pat-
a quality that is hard to define but all too terson or other black scholars with whom
easy to recognize. In "Blacklash," he re- I disagree. And I am sure he expects his
views the dire plight of African American paper to generate the storm of criticism
men, whom society has already stamped it will almost certainly receive-partic-
"unwanted, unneeded, and obsolete," and ularly from black women, in whose crit-
who, despite a modicum of success, live icism Patterson seems to glow. My mo-
with the often unhappy manifestations of tivation for adding my objections on this
the fear that they, too, will soon be tar- occasion is a letter I received recently from
geted for annihilation. another black scholar, one who has de-
Professor Patterson delineates the voted her career to examining undercover
multiple forms of black male self-destruc-agencies in government. She said she
tive behavior and traces their likely ori-wanted me to have a brief summary of
gins to slavery and a still persistent racism.her findings in an ongoing inquiry that
And yet there is an accusatory tone sug-she described as a fascinating but danger-
gesting that, whatever the causes, blackous work in process. She writes:
men must somehow pull themselves up
and, despite the society's hostility that has Dear Dbell:
laid them low, find the power to live de- No one in authority is willing to acknowl-
cent, productive lives. Who among us does edge that the studies are underway. The spon-
not wish for such a miracle of transfor- sors are unknown andfundingfor the project
mation? But given government's refusal emanatesfrom sources as steeped in secrecy as
the CIA. The purpose of the studies, if per- white work sites, schools, neighborhoods-even
sistent rumors are accurate, is so controversial churches. Massive unemployment, or "down-
that secrecy is understandable-if hardly more sizing, " has decimated black and white work-
justifiable. According to my sources, social in- ers alike, although the impact on blacks has
stability among much of the black community been particularly devastating. The result is ap-
is alarming policy makers at the highest levels. parent in the destabilization of families and
All concede that blacks have survived hundreds communities, and the tremendous increase in
ofyears of societal hostility and, in the process, anti-social behavior.
have exhibited amazing resilience in the face Given these developments, a high-levelpanel
of oppressive racial policies ranging from slav- ofgovernment and corporate officers are quietly
ery to segregation. sponsoring a series of "black sedition papers."
Today, however, many blacks are experi- These papers will record the efects on blacks
encing unprecedentedpathological trauma; their of late twentieth-century economic, political,
precipitous decline poses a national security and social disadvantage. Under the ground
risk which responsible leaders must recognize, rules, the papers are to focus on black pathol-
and to which they must be prepared to respond. ogy, describing it in detail and condemning its
Penalties for criminal conduct have been in- efects. Whenever possible, the studies will pro-
creased and targeted to African Americans mote self-help solutions, criticizing blacks for
(stricter provisions against possession and dis- not thinking of and adopting these solutions
tribution of crack than powder cocaine, for themselves.
example), so that an ever-increasing number Except as asides, the studies do not place
of blacks are either in prison or are enmeshed any responsibility on the society's racism for
in the criminal justice system. Even so, the the black pathologies under examination. In-
leaders of this project believe American society vestigators are urged not to "muddy the waters"
must be prepared to accept measures that cir- by suggesting that black conduct is to any sig-
cumvent due process and other protections usu- nificant degree the product of environmental
ally available to those arrested and charged forces, especially white racism. Comparisons
with crime. of negative behaviors of blacks with similar
Thegenesis of this racial crisis can be sum- conduct by other oppressed groups is frowned
marized easily. The ending of legally enforced on. On the other hand, writers are encouraged
segregation led many blacks to assume that to make unflattering comparisons of blackfail-
desegregation laws would be enforced with the ure with thegreater coping mechanisms ofother
same vigor as their segregationist predecessors. disadvantaged peoples. West Indian immi-
They were not. Indeed, much to the amaze- grants are a favored comparison group. Suc-
ment of those who had worked long and hard cesses by Asians, Hispanics, and Jews are also
for their enactment, civil rights laws intended welcomed.
to protect blacks from discriminatory practices Investigators chosen for these studies come
have now been interpreted by courts and justice from manygroups and disciplines. Black social
officials to bar programs and policies intended scientists, though, are preferredfor reasons that
to remedy long years of discrimination. seem to elude those blacks who are selected.
In addition, long-established stabilizing The public's responses to these "black papers"

forces in the black community were weakened are carefullyfollowed and recorded. It is im-
as better-prepared blacks moved into mainly portant that if the racial crisis worsens and
authoritarian measures are calledfor, the pub- mas-Hill hearings was that, because Tho-
lic will be prepared. mas' appointment fit the Republican po-
Be well, litical agenda, it was irrelevant that he
G. lacked the usual qualifications for the Su-
preme Court and that he was accused of
I tried after reading Patterson's article to conduct that befitted the negative stere-
verify my suspicion by contacting my otype of the black male. On the other
friend. She has not returned my calls and hand, there is virtually no political sup-
her associates are not able-or willing- port to address the roots of black crime,
to tell me where she is. She did not men- although fear of it underwrites reaction-
tion any of the scholars the secret group ary programs across the country, has
commissioned to write for them and, thus, helped elect presidents, and serves as suf-
I cannot say for a fact that Professor Or- ficient justification for massive "welfare"
lando Patterson's "Blacklash" article is one programs for prison contractors and lower
of the "black sedition papers." And, yet, middle-class families, whose children find
in trying to understand why he would employment opportunities with police
write a paper that so distorts black history departments as otherjobs disappear. Crime
and contemporary black distress, it is rea- and most other issues of deviant behavior
sonable to raise questions and, perhaps, are far more political-read economic-
hope for answers. than moral problems. Patterson's failure
to understand that basic reality is fatal to
Crime and most other a paper that-whatever his intentions-
issues of deviant will harm more black folks than it will
behavior are far more help.

Patterson, using the Anita Hill-Clar-
political-read ence Thomas debacle-a topic he has ex-
economic-than moral plored previously-as a paradigm, con-
problems structs a destructive and distorting picture
of the relationship between black men and
Even the title is accusatory. women
"Back-in a society where, he claims,
blacks used
lash," in contemporary usage, is often have gained "final acceptance . ..
as integral-even
to refer to the strong negative reaction of if still greatly disadvan-
whites to affirmative action and other civ-
taged-members of the society." He be-
il rights policies, which they believe "go
gins this unorthodox reasoning by stating
that
too far." "Blacklash" suggests that the Hill-Thomas hearings symbol-
blacks
ized hence
are turning against one another, and the acceptance of blacks as represen-
are primarily responsible for the tative
growing
members of mainstream society: that
Anita Hill and Clarence Thomas were
opposition to civil rights policies favoring
seen as in
blacks. In fact, of course, racial policies a man and a woman, their black-
this country have very little to ness
do with
inconsequential, and the relationship
black "worthiness" and everything to do
(or lack of one) between them is no dif-
with what will best serve white interests.
ferent than the relationship that exists be-
tween
One of the truths revealed by the white males and females. In the
Tho-
gender debate the hearings generated, sider, as well, the cynical exploitation of
Anita Hill, he claims, was a symbolic fig- racial issues in national elections by both
ure for white women as well as black political parties over the last twenty years,
women.
from Nixon's Southern Strategy to Willie
I join Professor Patterson in reaching
Horton to Sister Souljah.
On the dubious
for any evidence that the heavy burdenevidence of the Tho-
of racism is easing, but whatever else they
mas-Hill hearings, Patterson goes to work
were, the hearings were not
withthat. I think
an American landscape swept clean
it's safe to say that every of the "culture
black person of in
slavery," though he
America-with the exception ofthat
concedes Profes-
"its legacies are still very
much with us." Now
sor Patterson-was continuously andthat blacks are no
painfully aware of the race
longerof the concentrating
outsiders two on getting
in, Patterson asserts
protagonists and many of their witnesses. that we must focus
Surely, it must be more than clinical
on issues par-
at the top of the "internal racial
anoia that leads so many of agenda
us to... the
thecrisis-ridden
con- problem of
viction that had Anita Hill been white gender relations between African Amer-
and Clarence Thomas' wife black, the ican men and women." "Blacklash" is
questioning of both-and likely the out-filled with pre-emptive dismissals of the
come of the hearings-would have beenperdurance of racism, hedged acknowl-
very, very different. edgments: the kind of thinking that ad-
Be that as it may, it is a known his-mits "there is racism," but hastens to ex-
torical fact that the black struggle forplain it away. In this article, black women
equality in this country has often beenin general and black feminists in partic-
used as a vehicle by other groups to fur-ular become the real evil. This crisis would
ther their own advances. And though be more obvious, Patterson assures us, if
those groups make progress toward theirblack feminists were not obscuring our
goals due to black people, they continueunderstanding of gender relations. In his
to hold racist views. In the beginning of
view, the double burden theory that Af-
the women's suffrage movement, womenrican American feminists claim exists is
and blacks fought together. Frederickjust that, a theory.
Douglass and Susan B. Anthony often Patterson believes that if one closely
campaigned together in order to get leg-examines the life experiences and social
islation passed that would give both groupsrelationships of the two sexes within white
an opportunity to vote. But when it ap-dominant society, one would uncover that
peared that black men would receive theAfrican American men, not women, are
right to vote before white women, An-at the bottom of the well. In order to
thony and other white women quickly invalidate the "double burden theory" of
dropped all ties with blacks. Some earlyAfrican American women, Patterson de-
feminists even went so far as to remind picts a grim picture for African American
white men that black people were notmen and an encouraging picture for Af-
human: how could they (white men) pos-rican American women. He argues that
sibly think about giving blacks the ballotblack women are in better economic po-
before their own white women? Con- sition than their men by tracing, histor-
ically, the black woman's ability to gain as compared to black females. He also as-
entry into the dominant white world. This serts that the economic status of black
entry, Patterson feels, allowed black women is not only better than her male
women a chance to experience the "finer counterpart, but also that in many cir-
things in life" and an opportunity to de- cumstances she has surpassed her white
velop relationships with their white female counterpart. Her enviable position
counterparts. is primarily rooted in the fact that white
The contrary evidence to this position men do not find black women attractive
or regard them as "women" the way white
Black women seeking men do white females; hence they are

"shielded" from sexual oppression by
careers teaching law
white men. Therefore black women, Pat-
will wish to differ with
terson states, exist in a small crevice, bet-
Patterson ter than white women, not higher than
white men, but significant enough "that
is enormous. I refer readers to Professor
black professional men tend to get
crushed."
Cheryl Harris' article, "Whiteness as
Black
Property," that begins with the story ofwomen seeking careers teaching
how her fair-skinned grandmotherwish to differ with Patterson.
law will
Studies
"passed" or gained entry into the domi- show they have had, dispropor-
nant white society in order to obtain a a more difficult time gaining
tionately,
clerk's position in a downtown Chicago
entry into law school faculties than black
men. Their numbers on the faculty at
department store. Harris' grandmother
"listened to the women with whom she University are ludicrously small,
Harvard
a fact that Patterson overlooks-either out
worked discuss their worries, their chil-
dren's illnesses, their husbands'ofdisap-
misplaced loyalty (Patterson holds a
chair in the Sociology Department at
pointments, their boyfriends' infideli-
ties-all of the mundane yet critical thingsor an acceptance of the Harvard
Harvard)
that made up their lives. She came line that there aren't any qualified black
to know
them but they did not know her,women to hire in the first place.
for my
grandmother occupied a completelyIndif-
a similar vein, a survey of pricing
ferent place. That place-where whiteat new car dealerships revealed
practices
supremacy and economic domination
that black women are charged more for
meet-was unknown turf to her white the same vehicle than either white men,
white women, or black men. Given the
co-workers." Entry into the dominant
world by black women in order to supportwidely held belief that competitive mar-
their families has seldom been the fabledket forces will eliminate racial and gender
crystal stair that Patterson has created. discrimination and that such discrimina-
Patterson cites statistics showing high-tion will occur only in markets in which
er education attainment and income for racial or gender animus distorts compe-
African American females as compared to

tition, the car dealership study reveals an
acute example of compounded bias-the
black males to support his position that
the life chances of black males are worse double burden.
My point here is not to engage in a racism affect and sustain these scars of op-
battle of statistics or studies but to illus- pression. Indeed, to what degree are di-
trate that the assumption that black wom- visive aspects of the society that lead to
en have an easier time in this society than high divorce rates among whites also
black men is unprovable. Its assertion as tending to separate black couples-or in-
gospel is divisive in a gender setting al- terracial couples, for that matter?
ready beset with external pressures due to There is absolutely no doubt that black
a racism Patterson would have us believe men are in a state of emergency, with
is no longer a primary factor. more black men in prison than in college,
Patterson's exercise in high-wire rea- fewer black men attending higher edu-
soning proceeds to trace the history of cation than black women. And there is
black women from slavery to post-slav- little doubt that some employers perceive
ery. His account of slavery, like much of black women as more capable of fulfilling
his writing, is plagued with a kind of half- affirmative action obligations (since they
sight. Because enslaved women could bear occupy dual positions, as African Amer-
children and thereby increase their worth icans and as women). The debate, though,
as property, they were valued by slave should not focus on whether black men
owners. Patterson, though, viewed this or black women have been affected more
economic benefit as giving slave women by the dominant white society and the
an ability to "pass" within white society. steadily deteriorating labor market. Rath-
Patterson then claims that after slavery er, our efforts should be focused on why
a black woman's ability to pass was aug- black men are disappearing from the work
mented because she performed work as a force, from the family and, increasingly,
domestic, nanny, nurse, or clerk. These from life itself. This tragedy has affected
positions, he states, allowed black women black women deeply. They, after all, are
"greater access to the wider dominant the mothers, wives, and sisters of Amer-
white world." Service sector employment ica's "Disappeared." It is only when we
brought black and white women together observe the black man and woman in uni-
to share close relationships. Unfortunate- son, rather than individually, that one ful-
ly, black men, due to their sex and in- ly understands the plight of the African
ability to bear children, could not pass Americans.
into the white world. In fact, black men At bottom, it is not the African Amer-
could not obtain employment which ican female, through her economic in-
would allow a relationship to foster be- dependence, who emasculates the black
tween them and their white counterpart. male, but social programs that encourage
Slavery may have, as Patterson insists, the bastardization of our children. African
left an indelible mark on African Amer- American women or men are not to blame
ican women and men. And those scars when social programs such as AFDC en-
may have affected our ability to create and courage single-parent families by penal-
sustain meaningful relationships with oneizing the presence of males or when em-
another. The question is the degree to ployers exploit affirmative action pro-
which contemporary manifestations of grams by hiring African American wom-
en rather than black or white men. It is thinking about, much less funding, ex-
the fault of our society and the institutions pensive new programs of social recon-
that perpetuate the chasm between menstruction.
and women. At this point, I planned to end my
In a recent poll of African Americans critique by urging Professor Patterson and
conducted by Ebony magazine, 43.5 per- other academics writing about racial is-
cent of the respondents felt that relations sues to adopt a basic precept of physicians:
between men and women are improving. "First, do no harm." We all enjoy a de-
Of the males 26.2 percent and of the fe- gree of academic freedom that protects
males 29 percent responded that relations our writings from retaliatory censure.
are getting worse. The respondents feel When we attack those responsible for and
that "the root cause (of the division be- profiting from racism's continued viru-
tween black men and women) is the so- lence in our society, those we accuse are
cioeconomic environment that penalizes not without either the power or the will
black men and engenders suspicion be- to respond. But when we aim our assaults
tween black men and women." How can at a people whose dire predicament is
it be that what is so obvious to Ebony'swithout precedent in a history that in-
readers is lost on an academic of Professorcludes 200 years of slavery, then there is
Patterson's status? an ethical obligation to consider our po-
No one will disagree with Professor
sitions in the light of the likely use of our
Patterson when he asserts that we black words by those who despise and are quite
people must assist ourselves. Such urging,willing to see die a segment of our people
though, coming from the safe haven ofwho-after all-look like us, however
the academy, harms rather than helpsdifferent they may act. As Cornel West
when it claims that a segment of our com- made clear in reporting an incident with
munity is without morals, values, andNew York taxis that most of us have ex-
feelings-as though these all too obviousperienced, looks for many whites are con-
deficits occurred without an external clusive-regardless of our educational,
cultural, and even financial attainments.
source or cause, and as if they can be cor-
rected without a reversal of the social pol- Must we then remain silent about se-
icies that now sustain conditions and mo- rious shortcomings and self-defeating ac-
tivate behaviors that we all deplore. Shift- tivities in black communities? Of course
ing the root cause from a hostile society not. We need no more Daniel Moynihans
to black women is both inaccurate in fact bemoaning that they have been crucified
and counter-productive to the self-help for speaking truth about ghetto pathol-
goal Patterson espouses. The only pre- ogies. But Moynihan's critics were not
dictable result of this position is that it afraid of the truth. The issue, Professor
will reinforce a belief in even some liberal Stephen Steinberg contends, "concerns the
whites that blacks are genetically predis- theoretical claims that are advanced con-
posed to anti-social life patterns. Secure cerning the causes of these well-known
in this unspoken view, policymaking afflictions, together with the related issue
whites are freed of any obligation for even of what is to be done about them." Inclu-
sion of causes as well as efects is essential My friend's message makes my point in
to counteract the presumption of unwor- a more direct and personal manner than
thiness that translates the failings of a sub- I had imagined. Even so, I accept the ad-
ordinated people into self-caused fault monition. I have heard it before. The
rather than an externally imposed fate. Reverend Peter Gomes, pastor of the
After completing my response, I re- University Church at Harvard, gave me
ceived a message from my academic friend the key to what I view as the obligation
investigating the Black Sedition Papers. of all black people in positions where our
Again, I share her letter with you. voices can be heard by broad segments of
the public. He advised me back in 1980,
TO: Dbell as I was about to become dean of the Uni-
I received your message. I have two pieces versity of Oregon Law School. "Der-
of information that you will be interested in. rick," he said, "as a dean, you must look
First, I can confirm your suspicions. Professor in the mirror each morning and say, 'I
Orlando Patterson's "Blacklash" article is am an evil.' For you will have authority
considered a Black Sedition Paper. It will be and sometimes you will disappoint those
quietly circulated to policy-makers as evidence expectations you should reward and will
of both the hopelessness of the black condition reward those expectations you should dis-
and of their inability or unwillingness to take appoint. There is no way you can avoid
the strong, moral steps needed to continue as such mischief. So, each morning upon
productive members of the society. Ifound no arising, you must look at yourself in the
evidence that Patterson was commissioned to mirror, and remind yourself, 'I am an evil.'
write this paper or that he has received any Then you must ask, 'but today, can I be
direct compensationfor its publication. Indeed, a necessary evil?' "
Ifound no evidence that he is even aware of It did not take me long to learn that
how his paper will be used. Gomes was sadly wrong about the au-
Second, I have learned that the Black Se- thority available-for either good or mis-
dition Paperfiles contain a number of writings chief-to a law school dean. But his ad-
that are as unremittingly harsh in their as- monition is most appropriate for success-
sessments of whites and racism as you claim ful blacks whose very success uninten-
Professor Patterson is heartless in his assess- tionally makes life harder for the many
ment of black people. Apparently, this second blacks whom they would like to help. For
group of quite militant papers will be used to all of us, each day provides another op-
supplement their more conservative counter- portunity to become, in Peter Gomes'
parts. Together, it is expected that the militant words, "a necessary evil." That is, we must
and conservative papers will convince a larger not become so caught up in career ad-
spectrum of the white population of the need vancement that we fail either to remem-
for draconian measures against all blacks, when ber ourselves or remind those in authority
it becomes necessary to invoke them. that our individual advancement is not
I understand that the militant files contain synonymous with group progress. Any
a number of your papers. number of those stranded in ghetto pa-
Be well, thology not only look like us, they-but
G. for our good fortune and their lack of
same-would be us. Our basic challenge who can't help themselves has diminished
must be to act in ways that alleviate their is because the right-wing and its nasty
suffering, if we can, and to strive not to neo-conservative brain trust have been al-
make it worse. lowed to make government aid synony-
mous with favoritism to blacks, when in
fact the white poor have benefited the
most from government programs, and
THE TALENTED TENTH AND
white middle-class women are the chief
MARKET STREET
beneficiaries of affirmative action. (Mi-
Ishmael Reed chael Lerner and Seymour Lipset argue

more specifically thatJewish women have
Orlando Patterson says that the genderbenefited most.) Whites were also the
crisis between black men and black wom-
chief beneficiaries of Great Society pro-
en is contributing to the "horrible and grams like Medicare, Medicaid, and So-
premature deaths of black men." But most cial Security.
of these "horrible and premature deaths" The Talented Tenth, with its intimate
arise from turf wars associated with an
access to the media, is in a position to
underground economy, which has filledcampaign for the regulation of drugs,
the vacuum created as manufacturingjobswhich could help the non-violent seg-
move out to the suburbs and abroad. Drugment among those youths they scold, who
sales in Oakland generate hundreds offace stiff sentences as a result of the racist
millions of dollars. (Thousands of deathswar on drugs. The T.T. could urge black
can also be attributed to the lack of health
men and women to obtain regular check-
services, and the reluctance on the part of
many black men to obtain regular check-
Nothing could be more
ups.) Both Brent Staple's Parallel Time and
Hugh Pearson's Path of the Panther testify hypocritical than The
to the private sector's abandonment of the New Yorker, a white
inner city, and to the devastating effect separatist publication,
that the drug trade, the new industry, has
praising the late Ralph
had upon African Americans. Black wom-
Ellison for his
en, as far as I know, had nothing to do
with the creation of this industry. universality
The homicide rate among African
American males could be drastically re-ups and good nutrition. They could also
duced if drugs were regulated and thedo much to oppose the battering that black
government providedjobs that the privatepeople receive from the media, which
sector is too greedy or selfish to create.promotes damaging myths and stereo-
Having been abandoned by the federal,types about African Americans. But be-
state, and city governments, as well as thecause they have spent an enormous amount
private sector, American inner cities haveof energy castigating low budget hate-
become inhabited ghost towns. The rea-mongers and scolding the "underclass"
son the government's role in aiding thosefor their "culture of poverty," race-bait-
ing propagandists have been allowed to Members of the T.T. have become so
flourish, unchecked. Charles Murray and obsessed with local and isolated conflicts
other later-day Goebbelses have obtained between some Jews and some Blacks that
mainstream respectability; generous me- they have ignored the far more serious
dia coverage on television stations like tensions growing between Latinos and
NBC, whose Hitlerite attacks on blacks Blacks. And the T.T. has done nothing
occur every night; and, in Murray's case, to prepare African Americans for a battle
praise from the President and endorse- that will determine public policy for years
ment from the New York Times. Mr. Mur- to come.
ray has been anointed the official white I'm referring to the publication of The
militant spokesperson for the establish- Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure
ment. in American Life (The Free Press, 1994)
These powerful and well-financed
by Charles Murray and the late Richard
hate-mongers are ignored by some Herrnstein,
bright unpublished at this writing
black scholars who have been used by summer 1994). This book will re-
(late
white separatist publications againstvive the old argument about black infe-
Afro-
centrics, even though there is empirical
riority and will undoubtedly receive praise
evidence that the test scores of students from mass magazines like Time, New-
who attend Afro-centric schools have ris- sweek, U.S. News and World Report, as well
en. I agree that there are some Afro-cen- as from television networks like NBC and
trics who are off the wall-anti-Semitic, CNN, along with other powerful media
racist, homophobic, rabidly opposed to the sources. The T.T., with its hotline to the
mixing of the races-but it would take white establishment, should warn Presi-
these people many years and a huge bud- dent Clinton that if he continues to en-
get to cause the kind of damage to Amer- dorse Charles Murray, they will see to it
ican intellectual life and the educational that African Americans will withhold their
system that has been caused by the Eu- votes from him in the next election. The
rocentrists. The magazines that attack T.T. has the power to make this threat,
Afro-centrism (a serious movement that but will they take time off from dissing
won't be discouraged by Orlando Patter- the "hedonism" in Rap music to do so?
son's quip about "Mumbo Jumbo") are (The official voice of the neocons seems
owned and published by Eurocentrics. to be the New Republic, which is to the
Nothing could be more hypocritical than Clinton administration what Commen-
the New Yorker, a white separatist publi- tary, a racist rag, was to the Reagan ad-
cation, praising the late Ralph Ellison for ministration. In September the New Re-
his universality. Most of the black writers public ran an ad for Race, Evolution, and
who were called upon to make the "trib- Behavior by Philippe Rushton, published
utes"-obviously printed as part of a by Rutgers. The book, called "brilliant"
backlash against Toni Morrison, who has by Arthur R. Jensen, promotes the usual
been vilified by the Newhouse machine Nazi eugenics about black inferiority.
(they object to her black Holocaust num- (One can imagine the uproar that would
bers)-have never been published in the ensue were the Amsterdam News or The
New Yorker! Final Call to carry an ad for a book de-
nying the Jewish Holocaust.) If, as Carl travel to the United States for opportu-
Rowan has said, blacks have been out- nities. What he failed to mention was that
propagandized, a failure that influences 35 percent of Asian Americans are wel-

the quality of life of all African Americans fare-dependent and that Asian crime op-
since public perceptions influence public erations now entering the United States
policy, it is because the T.T. has spent are, according to law enforcement offi-
more time criticizing (as Mr. Patterson cials, posing a threat to national security.
does) the lifestyles of Boyz-in-the-Hood Articles about such operations, however,
than they have challenging the fabrica- are printed in the obscure pages of the
tions promoted by the media and the cor- newspaper, because newspapers desire to
porate-financed think-tanks. use Asian Americans against blacks, as do
propagandists like George Will and Jim
* * 0
Sleeper.
Many of the pathologies that the T.T.
Even and Mr. Patterson write about can be
those
institutions who pr
fabrications, traced
from to the introduction
time of crack cocaine
to tim
this is the into African After

case. American neighborhoods in
a repor
York's Citizens
the mid-eighties. TheBudget
T.T. should call for C
showed that "women on welfare make
up a far smaller percentage of the poor Patterson's arguments

than popular wisdom would have it"-a are handicapped by an
fact known to anyone who has taken the
obsolete black-white
time to examine the data-the New York
Times hypocritically chastised politicians "paradigm" of race

for "demonizing welfare mothers," when relations
the Times had, for years, helped define the
pernicious "popular wisdom." (Moyni- the government to release all records per-
hanism is the Times' house gospel.) In taining to its collaboration with interna-
addition to issuing fire-and-brimstonetional drug dealers, from its ties to the
sermons against the underclass, Mr. Pat-Italian mafia during World War II to its
terson and his colleagues could do muchsupport of the militaryjunta in Haiti (who
to take on the Murrays, Kristols, and Willshave become rich by turning the country
who are feeding the American public poi-into a safehouse for ships and planes car-
sonous distortions and lies about African rying drugs into the U.S.). Maybe the
American society. Irving Kristol, in a re- drug crisis in the United States is more
cent Wall Street Journal Op-Ed, painted akin to Three Mile Island, Love Canal,
affirmative action as a black giveaway pro- or Agent Orange, where the government,
gram, without a single letter of opposi- which is supposed to protect its citizens,
tion from a member of the T.T. Georgehas contributed to what amounts to
Will, appearing on "This Week with Da- chemical warfare against American citi-
vid Brinkley," wondered why the innerzens. (There are five hundred entries about
city underclass lacks the entrepreneurial drugs in Oliver North's diary.) I'd like to
enthusiasm of Asian immigrants who see some brilliant person like Stephen
Carter prepare a case making the govern- in the smearing of Howard University
ment liable for the drug trade, which it students as anti-Semites. This propaganda
tolerated under the guise of fighting com- job, broadcast on her show Eye to Eye,
munism. If the government is found guilty eventually led to a reduction of donations
then it should compensate every drug ad- to the United Negro College Fund. Pro-
dict and community that has been ravaged fessor Sam Hamod, of Howard, provides
by drugs. evidence that the Howard footage was
doctored to make the number of anti-
* * 0
Semites seem larger.
Slavery doesn't explain the high rate
Mr. of single arguments
Patterson's parent households among New are
icapped by York Puerto
an Ricans or why the black-w
obsolete typical
adigm" of race relations.
teenage inmate of the California prison Som
problems that
system isPatterson
Latino, or why the typical vic- claim
culiar to African Americans occur in La- tim of a drive-by shooting is Latino.
tino, Asian American and Native Amer- Nor can slavery explain why one third
ican communities. (In fact, Latinos have of gay men in San Francisco continue to
a higher poverty rate than blacks.) If, as engage in unprotected sex, why there is
he says, slavery explains what he perceives a large population suffering from AIDS
to be a crisis in African American gender in Utah (where few blacks reside), why
relations, how does one explain the crisis death by gunshot wounds is the leading
that is threatening other groups? cause of death of white male teenagers,
Though Asian Americans constitute why the fastest rising rate of illegitimacy
2.5 percent of Boston's population, they is among white women, and why the rate
account for 12 percent of homicides in of cocaine addiction during pregnancy in
the city: Asian women murdered by Asian the suburbs is the same rate as that in the
men. When asked on National Public Ra- inner city. Patterson attributes the AIDS
dio why the problem of abuse of Asian epidemic in Africa to the behavior of Af-
American women is rarely aired, an Asian rican males, but African males can't be
American man said that Asian Americans blamed for the rapid rise of AIDS in Asia
do not wish to expose their "weaknesses." where, in some countries, the rate is even
This could be said about other groups. In higher than in Africa, according to the
my book, Airing Dirty Laundry, I argued World Health Organization. In Thai-
that the dirty laundry of non-black groups land, a tenfold increase in AIDS has oc-
is covered up by the white-owned media. curred since 1990.
White producers and programmers use The African American intelligentsia
Latino and Asian Americans to make at- needs to break out of its intellectual ag-
tacks on blacks. Latinojournalists like Ray oraphobia and begin to do more cross-
Suarez (a conservative who criticizes La- cultural and cross-ethnic comparisons. The
tino Studies) outdo Rush Limbaugh in lack of such analysis undercuts some of
promoting racist stereotypes againsttheir single theory views about African
blacks. It was an Asian American jour- American "pathology." The need to in-
nalist, Connie Chung, who participated teract with intellectuals and leaders from
other groups becomes even more com- en and their children panhandle in the
pelling when one realizes that inner city streets all over the United States. What
neighborhoods are wracked by problems have the black Divas who barter their
caused by members of all races. In Oak- double oppression and who make enor-
land, where I live, the drug suppliers are mous honorariums on the lecture and
Latino and the black gangs are armed by reading circuit done for these women?
Filipino Americans. In New York, Asian What has the feminist movement done
Americans supply retailers in black neigh- for poor women at all?)

borhoods with heroin and cocaine. I've I suspect that gender relationships are
never read an editorial in the New York not as big an issue among ordinary blacks
Times, The New Republic, or any other ofas they are among college people, because
the media sources which chastise the Af- on the street level black men and women
rican American community regularly,realize that both genders are catching hell.
calling upon Chinese American or LatinoThe Thomas-Hill hearings, I think, re-
American leaders to condemn these prac-vealed the chasm between the attitudes of
tices. the T.T. elite and the masses of black
people (a recent poll revealed that Clar-

* * 0
ence Thomas, whose views about African
Americans and the justice system are na-
I think that
ive, is some
supported by forty of
percent ofthis
black T
is sincere, and
people). in Mr. Patterso
even, but during the
Even though Ms. Hill's testimony meeting
was
ket street corridor
contradicted by witnesses friendly to associat
her
borhood group
as well as thosewhich
who opposed her and evendeals w
in North Oakland, I corrob-
though her testimony was never never h
gender orated, thethat
crisis T.T. sided with Ms.has
Hill, be- paral
cause they seem always to support that
which is deemed "progressive" uncriti-
On the street level
cally, whether it be radical feminism or
black men and women deconstructionism. They want to be with
realize that both the latest thing.
Even so, I think that a T.T. that tries
genders are catching
to improve our morals is a good idea.
hell
Shelby Steele, Stanley Crouch, Cornel
West, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Walter
American academic discussion so that Williams, bell hooks, and a number of
other serious issues are never addressed. others who send out op-eds from Har-
vard, Princeton, Yale, Greenwich Vil-
(I agree with Patterson that it's decadent
for some black feminists who are rolling
lage, and elsewhere, have certainly stirred
in handsome academic salaries and ex- debate and provoked comment. Lecturing
travagant honorariums to complain aboutus about our anti-Semitism, homophobia,
their double oppression while thousandsviolence, welfare dependency, sexism,
of black, white, brown, and yellow wom-Afro-centrism, etc., can only make us bet-
ter human beings, but one would hope Their display shows that we've come a
that eventually some would follow the long way, but that we have a long way
example of Jesus Christ, who took his to go before we become the kind of peo-
message beyond the "members" and be- ple that the T.T. desire us to-human-
gan to address those outside of his com- istic, abstaining from hedonism, drugs,
munity as well. From everything that I've misogyny, braggadocio, machoism, etc.
read and experienced, the morals of Af- Moreover, why do "progressive" in-
rican Americans and Africans are no worse tellectuals abide the feminist myth that
or better than those of any other group. domestic violence is a peculiarly male
To imply otherwise, as Mr. Patterson phenomenon? Black women kill as many
seems to be doing, is to play into the hands men as black men kill women. In addi-
of the Nazis in academia, journalism, and tion, according to Justice Department sta-
government, who are beginning to float tistics, women kill more children than
some of the same theories about African men. The subject of domestic violence
Americans that we've heard about Jews committed by women is so taboo that a
and Gypsies and Slavs during another era manuscript by educator and tutor Cecila
of this century. Caruso hasn't found a publisher. The
None of us is perfect. manuscript is about violence against chil-
For example, I saw Orlando Patterson dren committed by many black mothers
deliver parts of this paper to a gender con- (a practice that, she argues, contributes to
ference whose audience was hostile to him. the violence in the African American
(During this meeting, Anita Hill deliv- community).

ered a bizarre paper about Zora Neale
Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God.) African American
Some prominent feminists on the panel
society is truly an open
and in the audience had some laughs about
Judge Thomas' interracial marriage. I society, even more so
thought that the display was ugly and since the voices of
tasteless and that those who were smirk-
black women, silenced
ing about Mr. and Mrs. Thomas would
never make similar remarks about a same-
for many years, have
been heard from
sex couple. How can the feminists who
participated in this cheap exercise (in-
cluding a famous mime who delights lib- Another issue that the T.T. has ig-
eral audiences with her portrayal of black nored is that of prison rape. Two hundred
male celebrities as buffoons) require that and fifty thousand men are raped in prison
African American men abandon sexism each year, so that with the spread of AIDS,
when they can't seem to get over their
a short sentence can become a death pen-
anti-miscegenetic attitudes-attitudes
alty. Not only are the men infected but
which they share with the Klan and the
upon release they pass on the virus to black
women. The contemporary T.T., which
Nazi party? Why don't their male sup-
has more power than any comparable
porters who dismiss male critics of these
group in history, should support court
feminists as "misguided" call them on it?
challenges which are attempting to hold Terry MacMillan's Waiting to Exhale to
prison officials liable for prison rape. Black Conservatism. In fact, cyberspace
I also hope that the T.T., which lec- may eventually render the T.T. and
tures us about our morals, is setting an "leadership conferences" obsolete. A book
example for the rest of us paranoids who entitled The Virtual Community: Home-
see conspiracies everywhere. I hope none steading on the Electronic Frontier, by How-
of them get caught like the New York ard Rheingold, argues that "Anyone with
neo-conservative jazz critic, who scolds a computer and a telephone can plunge
the black underclass for its violence, but into the global ongoing discussion. Any-
who has been exposed as being incapable body can start a bulletin board system and
of handling his own. (Harvard's Cotton become their own Ted Turner-and ev-
Mather, the father of our single cause the- eryone else on the planet can come by and
orists, went around lecturing people about see what they've got to say."
their morals and was a hypocrite, too.) Finally, Orlando Patterson shouldn't
confuse the vast majority of feminists with
* * 0
those few actively promoted by the me-
dia. There are probably many feminists
Whatever the problems
who would agree with him. (Some of the of t
American community, atIn least
Divas may agree with him in private.)
ing debated the end, movements
and not,like feminism
as inandthe c
groups, being treated
gay rights with
are bound to benefit black men, a
of silence. just
(When Ben
as the Civil Rights movement helpedFong
Chinese American
to advance the causes author,
of Jews, Asian w
crime in San Francisco's
Americans, Latinos, women, gays, and Chin
gangs retaliated by
lesbians. Any group that beating
fights to over- h
healthy, and
comeproves once
the deep-seated prejudices and ir- aga
spite the charges
rational beliefs of of
Americanthought
society should
political correctness,
be supported, and writers like African
Ntozake
society Shange, a brilliant
is truly an writeropen who risked
societ
more so since the
physical voices
and psychological of bl
injury to speak
silenced for for voices that have
many been suppressed, have
years,
from. Thanks to advances in communi- should be honored, not berated. I'm sure
cations, thousands of African Americansthat the forty percent decline in murders
who haven't had a chance to contribute of black women by black men resulted
to discussions previously monopolized byfrom the agitation of women like Shange.
an elitist intelligentsia and patriarchal(Those who criticize some of the more
"leadership conferences" will be able tomysandrist voices of the feminist move-
contribute their comments and make the ment should also be respected.)
open society even more open. I was glad One of the most moving speeches made
to see that I could reach an African Amer- during the recent Black Arts Festival in
ican conference through the internet, Atlanta was made by Hattie Gosset, who
where anybody with an inexpensive mo- said that in the old days she was just a
dem can comment on everything from consumer of writings by men. Now she's
writing herself. And we're all lucky that his scattergun style of making so m
she and other women are writing. statements and claims, reporting so m
findings freely plucked from a smorg
bord of secondary sources (while ref
encing mainly white scholars of min
THE ORIGINAL SEXIST
note, peppered with a few favored bla
Nathan Hare icons such as the pseudo-intellectual
hooks) makes it rather hard to zero in
Right out of the box, Orlando Pattersonto know where to start or turn in target
amazes us by confessing that he wasn't him, for with his portentous armam
alerted to the crisis in black gender rela-tarium, Professor Patterson is able to sh
tions until the Thomas-Hill controversyat a swarm of topics and issues with
appeared on live television. Arriving at actually hitting very much.
the issue some thirty years late, Professor For instance, he tosses in the phra
Patterson will have a perennial problem "production and reproduction," so cru
with time. Not least of these is the mis- to an understanding of black family a
taken notion that he is, intellectually gender issues today, giving the crafty i
speaking, inventing the wheel, uncover- pression that he understands and app
ing something new. In truth, despite his these phenomena to his task, with scar
long eminence in the sociological litera- ly any elaboration or discussion of th
ture, his flair for creative expression, his concepts per se, or how they apply to
conspicuous air of insightfulness and flu- crisis in black gender relations. This f
ency in verbosity, Professor Patterson's ure is emblematic: one way that Patter
analysis suggests that he is likely to need demonstrates he doesn't begin to und
another thirty years of study and reflec- stand how reproduction and product
tion before he can properly understand interface with the emergence of femini
and interpret the insights he sometimes and his special concern with feminis
presumes to have invented. meaning for the liberation of black wo
This is not to say that he does nothing
right. To begin with, all praises are due If motherhood is
Professor Patterson for his rare courage
oppressive, then God
among black intellectuals to dare to cri-
or nature was the
tique feminism at all, half-stepping though
he will be in this most risky endeavor, original sexist
knowing the viciously pounding hammer
of political correctness championed, long en on the one hand and/or the elevation
before it got its name, by feminists- and empowerment of black men on the
whose headquarters remain in today's Ac- other is readily exposed when he express-
ademe, amid the ivory and ebony towers es surprise that mothering is "valorized"
where Professor Patterson dwells andby black women as the most fulfilling role
for a woman.
gathers his food for thought and suste-
nance.
Apparently Professor Patterson was
However, Professor Patterson's
misled,forte,
or at least confused, by the anti-
maternal posture of the post-1960s anti- "unwanted" children under the guise and
natal reproductive (genetics-oriented hype of a supposedly planet-threatening
population control) social scheme, which "overpopulation"). Overpopulation (in
held mothering to be oppressive in the the midst of pronounced pro-natal poli-
unisexual notion that women could not cies for the middle class) continues to be
be free and equal to men without beingused tojustify coercive population control
the same as men and doing exactly as men of the nonwhite poor but never to deni-
do. Since women can give birth and mengrate, let alone to outlaw, fertility clinics,
can't, women had to be free of childbirth test tube babies or artificial fertility. Where
and their age-old role of having and rear- a decade or so ago, feminism denigrated
ing children, the better moreover to par- motherhood as oppressive and subjugat-
ticipate in the post-industrial (high-tech) ing, feminism's major outcry today is es-
labor force. For example, during the anti- sentially preoccupied with a fight for fer-
natal 1970s, breastfeeding was denigrated tility incentives such as universal child
in favor of bottlefeeding. When pro-na- care and assured retention of job after
talism took over for the middle class, pregnancy and related privileges condu-
breastfeeding made a comeback as womencive to the necessity for employment out-
appeared on magazine covers cuddling side the home, which until recently was
adorable and enticing infants. presented as a privilege. Thus while Eur-
In the first place, if motherhood is op- opeans openly dangle these fertility in-
pressive, then God or nature was the orig- centives in the faces of their women as
inal sexist, and the solution would pre- enticements for childbirth, they are pre-
sumably be to liberate it rather than elim- sented in America as "freedoms" to be
inate it. But from the 1970s to the early fought for.
1980s the entire country was in an anti- Patterson goes on to find the "valor-
natal phase. Today, the manifest policy is ization of mothering" by black women
pro-natal (and pro-family) for the middle to be "extraordinary in light of their skep-
class (read "whites") and anti-natal (and ticism about marriage and their highly
anti-family) for the poor (read "black andinstrumental attitudes toward relation-
nonwhite," haves and have nots, devel- ships." Apparently he confuses skepticism
oped and developing, and other such vari- with lack of interest or desire. Indeed, one
ations), who are inundated with "vol- main reason the black woman is so "in-
untary" sterilization, family planning strumental" is that she lacks enough black
schemes (often under the cover of pre- men who are able to be "instrumental"
natal care and "women's health") and in- in a racist patriarchy where the black male
ducements to postpone marriage. poses the primary threat to the ruling
The affluent middle class is presented white male, in the bedroom and the
fertility incentives (maternity and pater- boardroom.
nity leaves, universal childcare, child tax Thus a corollary to the "black male
breaks, etc.), while the poor are given fer- shortage" is the fact that the black woman
tility disincentives (workfare, "women's has had to be "both mother and father"
development by the United Nations," free to her children, a man and a woman. This
and unwanted birth control devices for is altogether expectable in the Hegelian
notion of master and slave because, in- not be destroyed on the slave plantation.
asmuch as a human being cannot be a He should talk to my grandmother on my
slave and a full person at the same time, mother's side, who was sold away from
a black female cannot be a woman, no her family, never to hear tell of them
matter how that may be defined in a given again, and to both of my great-grand-
time and place, anymore than an op- mothers on my mother's side, who were
pressed (black) male can be a man. The sold away from their first set of children.
black female can be a bit more of a man, Patterson doesn't say how he thinks the
while a black male can be a bit more of role of mothering was destroyed or what
a woman (consider the pimp who takes happens to mothers and mothering when
the feminine and, turning the tables, is the role of the father is destroyed. What
kept like the woman, by the woman, in happens when 60 percent of the children
saying no to the masculine canons that live in single parent homes and 67 percent
say no to him). of children born to mothers 18 to 44 are
Equally absurd is Patterson's attempt born out of wedlock, as in the black race
to explain this "valorization of mother- today? How will these boys view their
ing" on the part of black women as a mothers and women, psychologically if
simple result of the "long years of strug- not morally?
gle during slavery and its aftermath" and Patterson is aware that "socialization
her "heroic commitment to the preser- patterns obviously play some part in ex-
vation of the race." If it is heroic, it is plaining the growing discrepancy in male
also genetic and psycho-socioeconomic; and female achievement" but is courting
feminists at this point and, for whatever
The black male's reason, doesn't come close to mentioning
the increasing denigration and criminal-
inability to actualize
ization of discipline in the homes as well
his patriarchal thrustas in the schools. On the contrary, he
in a patriarchal societyprefers to call attention to allegations (by
may be a source of themiddle-class scholars) that "male child
abuse is growing out of gender bias in the
black race's inability
black under and lower classes," but not
to thrive in a family
the middle class. In fact, Patterson openly
way opposes what he labels "severe punish-
ments" characterizing the lower class. One
poor women, black, white, and char- slowly begins to get the feeling that Pro-
treuse, tend toward high fertility, so much fessor Patterson is himself a part of the
so that the powers-that-be gathered in problem of epidemic unsocialized ag-
Cairo, Egypt, under the auspices of the gression among inner-city youth today.
United Nations Population Fund to fur- Thus Patterson observes that black boys
ther its two-faced agenda of populationare more alienated from their mothers but,
control for the nonwhite poor. knowing not why, resorts to psycholog-
Patterson contends that the role of the ism and psychoanalytic gibberish, missing
mother, unlike that of the father, could the connection to the necessity of the sin-
gle mother (the parent, the very model, in their masculine role. For the fact
of the gender the boy must eventually mains that no matter how high a w
love and marry) to take on the role of climbs on the socio-economic ladde
solitary, punitive parent in the absence of appears to desire and sometimes d
the father. Although this situation spares a man a wee bit higher up, posses
the girl in one sense, it is likely to un- bit more socio-economic clout or wh
prepare her, indeed misprepare her, for a withal than she enjoys. A woman
well-moderated relationship with roman- tainly doesn't relish a man with l
tic male extensions of her father, minus
unwonted hostility or/and overindul- Black feminists have
gence vis-a-vis the male love object.
not contributed one
Still another surprise is Professor Pat-
terson's amazement that "some ideology major original idea to
of dominance" exists among middle-class feminism other than
black men. If a man's ability to attract a the predictable reports
woman pivots in considerable part on his
that white feminists
social potency, his prestige, power, wealth,
the black male blocked from avenues to are "racist" too
social potency may overcompensate in the

physical (athletics) or the sexual, includ- only because he is believed subject to feel
ing the search for deference from their "threatened" in such a situation, or/and
women. the woman will tend to develop contempt
even
Patterson gloats that black if heare
men isn'tnot
threatened; for in this era
allowed by their wives to of
"actualize" their
the great "black male shortage," many
black women
allegedly traditionalist ideology. Thisare breaking up with their
does
mates
appear to be so: witness the newsimply because
trend of "he doesn't want
leading black nationalistanything
males [significant
making or bigtime] out of
public confession of their conversion
life," to
or he isn't trying to move up in the
feminism by their wivescorporate
(although the
world the way she is. Even from
theto
metamorphosis also appears simple standpoint
be born of of personality and
mere opportunism, as many of
personal the na-there remains no run
interaction,
tionalists in question are on
known
"wimps"to
or have
"nerds" in the black com-
munity.
endured punishing marathon You canfor
searches even hear women com-
plain sometimes
employment on the mainstream that "he didn't know
academic
tenure track). In this regard,
nothing-he'd
the black
even ask me what restau-
rant
male's inability to actualize hisor show I wanted to go to most of
patriarchal
the time."may be a
thrust in a patriarchal society
Should Professor
source of the black race's inability to thrive Patterson ever listen
in a family way. in on black women, let alone poor black

women,
It may be that on a daily hurting
basis, blackand talking privately
women are inadvertently turning
about their
their family problems, he might
men away from the verycome away amazed
standards they that so many women
have an or
so deeply wish them to emulate "ideology
achieveof dominance" ideal
of the male. It's true that while they don't sor Patterson could have missed hearing
want to be beaten down or squashed un- the distressing complaints of unmasculine
derfoot or made to walk two feet behind, social and economic meekness in their men
they nevertheless expect, and frequently which black women feel impelled to voice
demand, that a man take a convincing rather frequently, especially as regards
lead in the task of making the couple's their failure to thrive in the labor force
way through life's harshest thickets. or the marketplace, where paradoxically

In the course of my research for a sec- the black male's efforts have not been
ond Ph.D. thesis on "Black Male/Female helped by feminism.

Relations," I questioned a variety of Despite Patterson's recognition that
women, black and white, who would feminist thought "has badly obscured our
readily concede to me privately that there [black] understanding of gender rela-
is in women a certain longing to subdue tions," he is unable to tell us how because
a man but, once they succeed, an equal it turns out that feminist theoretics have
tendency to lose interest in him. It is as also obscured his vision, perhaps all the
if they would test a leaning post before more as he doesn't realize it himself. Im-
trusting it with their safety or support. mediately after stating that black femi-
The female ideal of male dominance also nists themselves tend to "confound" the
may be seen in the fact that, although atproblem of gender, he sets off himself to
least one white feminist group, in theirdo the selfsame thing. Thus he proudly
quest for equity, has advocated having sexalleges that black middle-class women, in
side-by-side only (if not to stop sleeping contrast to Sharazad Ali, hold "the most
with the enemy at all), most womenadvanced set of gender attitudes in the
readily assume the subordinate flat-of-backnation." Not only does he fail to specify
position in sexual encounters-at least onwhat constitutes an advanced ideology of
television and movie screens-despitegender (other than the presumption that
suggestions from the field of anatomy thatit is other than "traditionalist"), like most
that may not be the best position for theirof Ms. Ali's critics, Patterson ignores her
own gratification. main point-though not one originated
As for the source of the black male's by her-that black women contrarily err
"commitment to dominance"-or the in their tendency to imitate white wom-
female's uneasiness when he isn't domi- en's attitudes toward white men.
nant enough, for that matter-it is some- I couldn't agree more with Professor
thing that surely goes back far past slaveryPatterson that black feminists have con-
to Africa, if not the beginning of time, asfounded gender issues. Indeed, black fem-
there is no anthropological literature forinists have not contributed one major
the existence of a matriarchy (where original idea to feminism other than the
women as a group rule men as a group)predictable reports that white feminists
anywhere except in mythology. In fact, aare "racist" too. Like black men, they ul-
good case could be made for the fact thattimately follow the political ideology of
African America is the most matriarchal the liberal left wing of the Democratic
society that the world has ever known. party. They merely echo the conclusion
One wonders how, even from the ivy- of the National Organization of Wom-
covered laboratories of academia, Profes- en's first and only black president, Aileen
Hernandez, that white feminists are racist in white feminism and blacks fighting ra-
and/or preoccupied with "upper middle cism, many complained that the black man
class white women's issues." Coming up was not carrying his load socio-econom-
with what the black low-income issues ically and that they were tired of carrying
should be, other than trying unsuccess-
him around like a sack of potatoes, tired
of having to raise "boys" who should al-
fully to lure them into the feminist fold
and ministering to their socio-economic
ready be acting like they are men. I in-
dicated that this not only was not femi-
needs in a traditionally charitable or wel-
nism, but anti-feminism, that the white
fare way, continues to elude black and
white feminists alike. woman complained that her men were
getting too much and called it feminism,
At a Pennsylvania retreat in the mid-
1980s, I was unable to get the University
then the black woman complains that her
men are not getting enough but calls it
of Pittsburgh's black educator to see that
feminism too instead of some other name.
sexism is not equivalent to conflicts in
interpersonal relationships. It is true that
black women wish black men would treat
The emphasis on
them better, and of course they should,
but black men also wish black women to slavery lets white
treat them better too. society off the hook for
When I interviewed avowed black its anti-natal, anti-
feminists in 1981, I asked them the ques- family reproductive
tion, "What is black feminism?" They
agenda for blacks
appeared never to have thought about it.
When I probed them further, they want-
Black feminists seeking to replicate
ed better jobs and socio-economic rights
but could not ask them of black men, who
white feminism are up against the hand-
icap that the white race claims to have a
have no jobs to give. They also could think
of nothing they would demand of woman
the problem but the black race has a
woman problem and a man problem, in
white man that they would not want from
that unlike the white man, the black man
their men also and equally. Many con-
is also oppressed. The white woman com-
fessed that, if they could find a good man
who could take care of them and would plains that the white man gets too much
of
stick by them, they'd give it all up for the the socio-economic pie; the black
man but thought such black men were in
woman complains that her man isn't get-
too short supply. Many were proud of
ting enough of the socio-economic pie to
their strength but felt it was something
suit her needs, yet she increasingly is im-
that had been forced upon them and that
pelled to take up the feminist cudgel out
of
it would likely be the death of their ability personal "anger," as in the case of
to form a satisfactory love relationship.
Michele Wallace, feelings of personal re-
Quite a few indicated that they would
jection and deprivation, saying in effect,
"if I will embrace the white woman and
give their right arm to have a strong black
man to stand beside them. her designs, I too can subdue and possess
Pressed to give one black feminist de- the black man." Consequently, while
mand that was not already incorporated complaining that the black man too often
embraces the white woman sexually, the ize itself in the San Francisco Bay Area
black woman decides to embrace the white in 1981, the all-black male school idea in
woman politically. Detroit and Milwaukee in recent years,
One feels uneasy with Professor Pat- the Nation of Islam's current effort to
terson's ambivalence, his tendency to toss hold black males-only meetings as well
around phrases such as "racism and sex- as black females-only meetings, sexual
ism" (as if they have equal and congruent harassment agendas that will bring down
weight, social validity, or moral justifi- the first black U.S. Catholic cardinal and
cation) and his occasional courting of fa- almost toppled the second black Supreme
vor with black feminists and feminist the- Court nominee, as well as the kingpin of
oretics as if cuddling them behind the current efforts on the part of civil rights
neck with one hand and thumping them and militant groups to coalesce. By com-
with the other. parison, William Kennedy Smith, Bill
Perhaps this is also the motivation be- Clinton and Mrs. Jones, and Mr. Bartolo,
hind his reference to the black male's al- owner of the San Francisco 49ers, would
leged "misogynistic irresponsibility" and appear to constitute a double standard
his condemnation of the black male for while blacks such as Clarence Thomas
spreading AIDS over Africa. Perhaps he (sexual harassment), Mike Tyson (date
has never heard reports on CNN and in rape), and 0. J. Simpson (domestic vio-
the New York Times that AIDS first got lence) are used as catalytic agents for white
to Africa and continues to get to Africa feminist programs to solve social prob-
(now also Japan and Asia) overwhelm- lems in ways that make things worse for
ingly through tainted American blood. blacks, let alone black gender relations.
Also, the heterosexual black male (ad- To his credit, Patterson sees the one-
dicted to intravenous drugs) who passes dimensional emphasis on strengths of the
AIDS on to his woman may not be much black family and gender relations as "over-
different, morally speaking, from the black defensive and counter-productive." But
mother who passes it on to her child. does it matter anymore, anyway? Where
Beyond his occasional courting of was Professor Patterson when we needed
feminists, Patterson's decision to put so him?
much of the sociological emphasis on In any case, his current lack of insight
slavery lets white society off the hook for into the sociological roots of his subject
its anti-natal, anti-family reproductive matter also leads to his spurious use of the
agenda for blacks and related socio-eco- relatively low suicide rate of black women
nomic contributions to black family de- to document their greater institutional and
cay, which is happening today as we speak social support and to counter the notion
and, as I predicted, throughout the 1970s, that they suffer a so-called double wham-
when black intellectuals were denying my, forgetting that men commit suicide
pathology and asserting strengths. This several times more than women in all in-
includes white feminism, which brings dustrialized countries and the black sui-
down every black male effort to rise, cide rate is typically lower than that of
whether it is the First National Confer- whites. An African proverb says that the
ence of Black Men that sought to organ- man (or woman) who is already on the
ground has no place to fall. Also, the op- man is more suppressed (kept down in
pressed individual experiences many op- comparison to the white man). The ex-
portunities in dealing with adversity, de- ample of college and professional sports
pression, and disappointment. Perhaps with its great white hope is a case in point.
above all the oppressed individual's locus However, now that the black man has
of control, being more external, more been admitted to the leagues following
governed by externality, permits the in- World War II, he has come to dominate
dividual to externalize the blame while sufficiently that the problem now is how
relieving the person of some of the bur-to keep him out or lessen his dominance
den of exercising self-autonomy, thus di-
through elevated academic requirements,
minishing an impulse to exercise the ul-
random drug testing, or whatnot.
timate authority over the self and one's Professor Patterson's main problem is
life-the decision or will to end life in his intellectual fixation on slavery, even
an act of suicide. attributing an alleged "compulsive sex-
After noting with surprise that the
uality," a "vicious desire to impregnate
marriage rate of black men with steady
and leave women," and "violence against
jobs fell from 75 percent to 58 percent
other black men" on the part of lower
between 1960 and 1980, Patterson, nev-
class black males to slavery and the "per-
missive slave culture." Consequently, he
ertheless, explains the high rate of "mar-
ital instability and dissatisfaction among
does not see clearly enough the impact of
middle-class African-Americans" as re- postmodern society's dysfunctional social
agendas on impoverished individuals
sulting from the scarcity of marriageable
men, forgetting that the problem is that
lacking the institutionalized social sup-
those who are marriageable have stoppedport and reinforcement enjoyed by the
white middle class.
marrying. His other explanation, "the in-
creased economic independence of black Worse, his predilection for over-reli-
women," is easily exaggerated because, as
ance on slavery (or any other constant or
black women will tell you, most havelongstanding variable such as welfare)
never on this continent had a man that pulls him toward the dubious intellectual
they could be dependent on. In 1969, strategy of trying to use a constant to ex-
when unisexualist feminists began to plain a change. Ending moreover with the
rhetoric that "we can only reclaim our-
preach the need for independence for their
men and getting out of the home, black
selves by first reclaiming our past," he
women would say that they were still try-takes an ounce of truth to justify con-
ing to get in the home. tinuing to look backward toward an in-
As for the double burden, it is bothtellectual quagmire, while laboring to see
true and untrue. It's like hitting a woman
what is going on across present and future
with both hands at once, compared tohorizons.
hitting a man with a one-two punch. Be-
yond that, as I have said elsewhere, the
black woman is more oppressed (in that her
yoke may be harder to bear, including
displaced rage from her man) but the black
STRANGERS IN THE NIGHT feminist ideologies), as the debates surrounding
Ntozake Shange's play For Colored Girls
Rita Williams Who Have Considered Suicide and Mich-
ele Wallace's book Black Macho and the
The day I began reading Orlando Patter-
son's article, Blacklash, I was sitting above Myth of the Superwoman amply demon-
strate. In spite of the intensity, and what bell
a staircase at a restaurant, watching that
spectacular marmalade sunset that is the hooks calls "the liberatory pedagogy" of con-
hallmark of California late-summer eve- temporary African American feminist thought,
it has had, as she acknowledges, little impact

nings. A pale toddler who couldn't have
been more than two arrived at the stair- on African American political thinking. Worse,
it has badly obscured our understanding ofgen-

case, escorted by her remarkably hand-
der relations. This failure to explore and com-
some black father. She was at that stage
municate isfound not only in popular discourse
when stairs require concentration and re-
solve, but at each level, her father gave but in academia, reflected in the paucity of
her a little boost, and with each increment academic works directly focused on the subject
of success, she shook her mushroom-col- of black gender relations.
ored ringlets in delight. Finally, when she

made it to the top of the stairs, her mother,
My first reaction was that it hardly
an open-faced blond, scooped her up, seems fair to indict Wallace and Shange
hugged her, and then held her high in in 1994 for works that were groundbreak-
the air. ing in the 70s. Nor does Patterson give
This family started toward my table. them credit for naming and legitimizing
Mother and daughter smiled at me as they black women's anger-a practice that is
still all too often rewarded with ostracism
passed. But when the father looked in my
direction, his smile fractured, and we both and hyperbolic allegations of treachery and
looked away abruptly. I should not say sexual perversion. As Patterson himself
that he stopped smiling simply because I

has pointed out, black culture has come
am black; I have no way of knowing what to be defined exclusively by black men.
he saw or felt. I only know that I have Rarely is there a genuine interest in and
concern for the welfare of black women
gone through that tedious little minuet a
hundred times. and their civil rights other than as an ex-
I continued reading and came upon the

tension of the black male agenda.
following: It was astonishing to me when the is-

sue of Benjamin Chavis' misappropria-
tion of funds came to light, no one-
Contemporary African American feminist neither the N.A.A.C.P., nor the press
thought has badly obscured our understanding (black or white) interviewed Mary Stan-
ofgender relations..... [T]here has, of course, sel. No one was curious about her side of
been a great deal of very angry talk among the story.
blacks on the subject, but little conversation,
and even less light [emphasis added]. People
have been railing at each other, both between
and within genders (not to mention between My particular bias is to sympathize with
groups with separate sexual orientations and the feminist perspective. I inhabit the
world of assumptions that Patterson is 2. Ideology. Perspectives ending in
challenging-black, female, education- "ism" also would be left at the door along
ally and economically capable; but I found with other weaponry. No exceptions-
his challenge of conversation arresting. especially not for a good reason. This
What would it be like if black men and would include neoconservatism, femi-
women chose to talk to each other? nism, Afro-centrism, fascism and black male
What generally passes for conversa- chauvinism.
tion in my community tends to be ex-
3. Assumptions. One favorite African
traordinarily strenuous maneuvering,
American belief is that we are especially
where we push the florid jargon of em-
psychically endowed and can read each
powerment and we publicly affirm our
other's minds and hearts and motives.
African unity to the high heavens. But all
too often when the private business of Assuming such amnesty were guaranteed,
fidelity, commitment, and inconvenienceand a conversation could take place, what
begins to be negotiated, we check out. might we talk about? We might start by
There is no end of triangulation in which examining a wider range of reasons than
an absent third party (or race) is sum- feminism for Patterson's "paucity of ac-
marily disposed of. It's a cheap way ofademic works directly focused on the sub-
guaranteeing an alliance without reveal-ject of black gender relations."
ing anything-we agree we hate X and First, by their very nature, intimate
that is our primary bond. Still, we haveinteractions lose their special value when
not had a conversation. made public. For example, one rarely hears
When I imagined myself sitting down of matters of the heart among Mafia wives
and listening to the father of the little girl and their husbands, or of the domestic
in the restaurant, I realized somewhat squabbles of Native American women and
their men, or of the glacial rifts between
Ghetto performance Norwegian spouses in small Wisconsin

towns. Couples close ranks rather than
art satiates an almost
discuss how their relationship is doing-
priapic bloodlust, the particularly when it's not doing well.
fruit of simple boredom Additionally, the day-to-day ordinar-
iness of domestic intercourse among any
group doesn't lend itself particularly to
wryly that each of us would have to have
inspired "works." There is no reason that
a ludicrous series of guarantees before such
gender relations among African Ameri-
an exchange could go forward. A contract
cans should be an exception. Were it not
would probably be required guaranteeing
for the fact that we are in crisis, very likely
the absence of the following:
those topics would continue to defy scru-
1. Arms. As in no weapons of mass
tiny. or
minor destruction-no shivs, hot grits,
Second, our living-in-a-fishbowl his-
AK47s, grapefruit spoons, Uzis, axes to us reluctant to reveal ourselves
tory makes
on intimate matters, because no matter
grind, curling irons, cans of lye, plastique,
nuclear arms, or hits scheduled to what mistake blacks make, it's news. In
be car-
ried out at a later date. fact, our special niche in the nightly
broadcast is guaranteed-there is always profoundly so in the "under" and "dis-
something prurient to root through in the organized" classes. Instead we exchange
black community. A peculiar parasitic jargon which is designed not so much to
cottage industry has evolved around "The communicate as it is to intimate and in-
African American Problem." Indeed, en- timidate. In such a polarized environ-
tire careers are built around interpreting ment, confusion reigns and Frankie and
our peculiarly self-destructive behavior to Johnny may start out having a congenial
baffled outsiders and becoming experts on chat and end up dodging each other's bul-
the lecture circuit about who is respon- lets.
sible. Americans have become a nation of Fourth, black male peer pressure often
voyeurs, watching pornography, watch-requires that these young men's lives be
ing comedy, watching videotapes of peo- devoted to evening the score with white
ple living. Ghetto performance art satiates men. If he signs on for the gang ride, a
an almost priapic bloodlust, the fruit ofblack youth joins an exclusive fraternity,
simple boredom. some in prison, some imprisoned by their
Americans love to be shocked. Theyown hatred. In any event, his bonds with
can't get enough of it. Further, as the other males supersede connection to fam-
millennium approaches, our nation seems ily and women. His path to identity be-
to be fracturing more and more. We have comes that of the warrior (or criminal,
less and less positive consensus and more depending on your point of view). Since
nasty righteousness. African American the primary facet of such secret societies
criminals provide a rallying point-con- is voluntary alienation from everyone, it
sensus at no cost. They allow us to say, is a joke to expect such men to converse
"At least we are not that." African Amer-
with women or anyone else not sympa-
icans can only make prime time by in- thetic to the club rules. This attitude is
habiting the archetype of the Identifiablenot limited to men who are in street gangs;
Problem. Thus, it is highly unlikely that it climbs the ladder of social class as well.
we will volunteer further details about
our volatile interpersonal relations, given

the price we pay for divulging any vul-
nerability at all. Finally, however, the real explanation for
our inability to talk among ourselves may
Third, the entire community is cross-
hatched with mutually exclusive, en-lie in neither ideology, feminism, nor ma-
trenched ideologies which supply an-chismo, but in an injury that precedes rea-
swers, not questions-where people talksoning: our fathers.
but don't listen and where we forget very Patterson himself speaks of the hu-
early what it means to hear. If anything,
miliation and marginalization of black fa-
thers in American history. "The man's
we are a nation of rappers, sermonizers,
signifiers, and shouters. But the delicate
role was always provisional, defacto, and
task of a simple conversation in whichsubject to sudden rupture. Against the
whites he could offer his children and
both people talk and listen is not some-
thing we teach our children, and rarely
spouse no protection, no security, no sta-
something our parents taught us. This istus, and only a precarious name and iden-
tity." We simply can't have a gender dis- habit of thinking is very much with us to
cussion until we can have a Father dis- this day. As they say in prison, "Don't
cussion. snitch out your buddy to the Bulls." In
The collective guilt and shame so manyslavery, to speak of intimate matters-of
the errors, flaws, and confusion in our
of us share about our absent, unavailable,
or incompetent fathers is probably ourbedrooms-was to invalidate the only in-
most unspeakably painful wound. It is timacy
a over which we had control at all,
terrible and terrifying thing to feel sorryno matter how brief. Again, it meant giv-
for your father. It is equally devastatinging our oppressors specific ammunition
with which to further vilify us. We
when he is capable but disinterested. It's
an American tradition to blame Mom for adopted their belief that race was the only
everything from athlete's foot to impo-thing that counted-first, last, and al-
tence, but the perpetual focus on the over-ways. Our humanity, gender, and indi-
bearing black female obscures the pro-viduality were subsumed by that process
found trauma both daughters and sons ex-of categorization. We were not even Af-
ricans or Americans. We were simply
perience concerning Dad. We deflect the
pain into anger, because it feels like em-black, or, if you will, "niggers." Our
identities as racial entities first, rather than
powerment, but that delusion costs us our
human men and women, has skewed our
We still cling to the abilities to prioritize. Indeed, there is an

almost fascistic insistence in the African
belief that we are only
American community to put aside one's
alienated outsiders-
process of individualization for the sup-
victims in an alien posed good of the race. This is particularly
land-and that our true for many women.
Further, our exclusion from the enti-
first priority should be
tlements guaranteed in the Constitution
to exact retribution
and the Bill of Rights made us abandoned
from the Pilgrims children once more, even under the Con-
stitution. White America has finally ac-
ability to draw close, because whenknowledged
we that we are entitled to basic
are touched by other powerful feelings,
rights. What is not recognized is the ex-
tent to which we still do not regard our-
especially ones that are tender, the orig-
inal wound is redisturbed. selves as such-members of the greater
It is savagely humiliating to be deval-
American community entitled to life, lib-
ued by your father. One tends to take it and the pursuit of happiness. Equally
erty,
important, we don't see ourselves as re-
personally, although that's often a grave
mistake. All experiences with men will
sponsible guardians of those rights for each
other and citizens outside the African
be viewed through the template of that
original abandonment. American community. Instead, we still
cling to the belief that we are only alien-
In the holds of the slave ships, we were
prisoners of war; commiserating withated theoutsiders-victims in an alien land-
and that our first priority should be to
enemy was betrayal at its most basic. That
exact retribution from the Pilgrims. While as "a man's castle." So there is a good deal
immigrants from across the globe (other of reluctance on the part of black women
people of African descent as well) flock to overtly challenge that premise, al-
to the opportunities available on Ameri- though the turmoil in black homes is tre-
can shores, we still demand acknowledg- mendous. Moreover, there is much con-
ment that we got screwed over and that fusion between black men and women on
it wasn't right. Sometimes, we get our the experience of violence and sex. At one
way and they admit "they done us wrong." point in her career, Tina Turner declared
This short-term advantage is a funda- that "we do things rough." Later, she de-
mental waste of time because we spend cided it wasn't all that sexy to be punched
more time working on them than on us. out after all. But she left the "chitlin cir-
And us is what we can do something about. cuit" before she made that pronounce-
It is one source of a tremendous rift be- ment.
tween black men and women because The idea that we should have a "con-
versation" regarding the relations be-

many of us value practicality over retri-
bution. And that re-exhumes the issue of tween black men and women implies that
Uncle Tomism. we can afford some candor. Our history
Even while there is truth in Patterson's
has made us believe that the truth is in-
cidental and honesty naive. Too many

point that black women have made eco-
nomic and educational strides, theretimes
is sadistic crackers have impressed that
considerable pressure for black women'spoint upon us with lynchings, and the
courts have aided and abetted. Too many
goals and identities to be defined by men-
times among ourselves, we have followed
by the images they will cherish, or at least
date. As best we can, we step into those
their example.
roles and hobble around. And so our iden- We must begin by remembering our
stories rather than denying them at all
tities become fragmented because they are
derived from definitions that are in rela-
costs. We must go further, then, and share
them, rather than conceal them. Unrav-
tion to services we provide men. We be-
come the disembodied pumping genitalia
eling our particular, personal strand of the
of hip hop, on the one hand, or the Na-
Gordian knot is the beginning. We must
tion of Islam, with Madonna personastrust
in that strand to lead us out of the lab-
habits, on the other. Both images inflate
yrinth to the light that Patterson speaks
of-to each other.
or invalidate black female sexuality, but
more importantly, both choices colonize
it. Many black women still choose to sub-
vert themselves for an opportunity to have
DAMAGED GOODS
a home, an intact family, and a sense of
community; but much of the time it is an
Cecilia Caruso
either/or proposition that, over time,
generates considerable frustration. For the past five years I have served as a
Black men have had few arenas where tutor/mentor to school children in grades
they were granted a healthy sense of pow- ranging from preschool to twelfth grade.
er. American tradition outlines the home My student population is diverse, con-
sisting of black, white, Asian, lower class lieve that my tutees' parents want to save
to upper-middle class children, attending their children, but I have found black par-
both public and private schools. ents to be unable or unwilling to do what
To date, I have worked with 30 Af- is required in order to complete that task.
rican American children (4 girls and 26 They, too often, are the problems.
boys), 20 Asian, and 8 white children. All It is crucial that we keep in mind that
but five of the African American children any black child born since 1975 in the
(three of whom were members of the same inner city has, more likely than not, been
family) lived in single-parent households born in the shadow of cocaine; and that
headed by a mother. All of the Asian and any black child born since 1985 in the
white children (except one Korean boy) inner city has, more likely than not, been
lived in two-parent homes. All of the born in the shadow of crack. This dra-
white children and two of the black chil- matically alters what we have customarily
dren (a boy and a girl) attended private known about "ghetto" life. Rational
schools, while the other 28 black children thought is almost nonexistent in this en-
and all of the Asian children attended the vironment. Because of this, most of the
New York City public schools. My work standard sociological theories and analyt-
with Asian children has mainly consisted ical tools are no longer applicable.
of helping them to improve their English,
maintain good grades, and achieve higher
levels of excellence. For the black chil-
dren and white children in private schools, Tutoring children in their homes, I can
I was asked to increase B averages to A see, hear, feel, and taste up close the in-
averages and secure listings on the honor fluences impacting their lives. And tutor-
rolls. For the black children in public ing children from diverse backgrounds has
school, all of whom were failing miser- enabled me to observe the development
ably in nearly every subject, I was asked of young minds in a comparative frame-
simply to "save" them, a monumental taskwork. I hope the discussion herein will
at least, since these children's problems shed further light on the plight of inner
extended way beyond school work. city children and will contribute to the
It probably goes without saying that I literature seeking to understand the prob-
have had phenomenal success with my lems of relationships between adult Af-
private school students and Asian stu- rican American males and females.
dents. As for my black children, I can say It has long been recognized that what
with certainty that I have been successful we become as adults is due primarily to
with only one child, a girl who had spent the environments in which we were raised.
two years in the twelfth grade and whoTherefore, I have focused on the four most
would definitely never have graduated had important environments of children: the
I not been called in. In working with this home, the school, the neighborhood, and
child, however, I had the complete and the larger society.
unwavering cooperation of her parents, Recently, I was discussing the danger
an element too often missing when work-of relying on corporal punishment in the
ing with other black children. I truly be-rearing of children with a friend, a prom-
inent New York plastic surgeon. He said through the neighborhood, teeming with
to me, "I don't understand how people people all over the streets, sidewalks, and
can do that. I could never raise a hand to stoops. I thought about them as I observed
my children. I am an adult, and they are drug deals being made almost openly on
immature little persons and totally de- the streets, even as police, on foot and in
fenseless against me. Not only will I not cars, continuously patrolled the neigh-
hit them, I occasionally allow them to borhood. (This part of the Bronx looks
win arguments. Their winning an argu- as if under siege by the police state.) I
ment once in a while takes nothing from thought about his comments as I listened
me, but it does so much for their self to the loud music-salsa, rap, and reg-
esteem."
With a successful practice on Man-

The meanness and
hattan's East Side, there is little doubt his
violence of the streets
children will always live in the best
neighborhoods and attend the best schools. and playgrounds
Moreover, his family is white and lives seem to be negated
in a country where the institutions-
by the air of
Constitution, police, economy, govern-
excitement and
ment, etc.-are committed to their well-
being and the preservation of their dom- festivity
inant position. And yet, despite all this,
he worries about his children's self es-
gae-emanating from the buildings, cars,
teem! To say that his children are ex-and hand-held "ghetto blasters," adding
tremely fortunate is more than a grossto a festive and exciting atmosphere and
understatement. For his children, all four
contributing to the "lure" of the streets.
major environments operate at an out- I was still thinking about his com-
standingly high level. Even children who
ments as I waited for the elevator in my
may have only two or three or only one
student's building, when two little boys
of these environments working properly
of about six years of age walked up. One
may still achieve a modicum of success as
of them was crying, the tears streaking
adults in the United States. Thus, if we
his dirty face. I asked the child what was
wrong. He told me another boy had just
think of the doctor's children as living at
one end of a continuum, what about chil-
beaten him up and had hit him in the
head with a rock. I then noticed, with
dren who live at the opposite end where
none of the environments function prop-
horror, the large lump protruding on the
erly and who are members of the most
side of his head. I advised him to go up-
stairs and put some ice on it and have his
despised racial group in the United States?
Allow me to introduce you to my students mother take him to see a doctor. To which
who live in the Bronx. the other child said, "We don't have time
I thought about my doctor friend'sfor that; we're just going upstairs to get
comments all evening and into the nexta drink of water and something to fight
day as I rode the D train uptown to thewith and then we're going back to the
Bronx to meet with one of my students. playground."
I thought about his comments as I walked "But, you can't go back there," I ex-
claimed. "I'm sure your mother won't al- They have told me about shoot-outs be-
low it." tween drug dealers and between drug
"My mother's not home," said the dealers and the police-many of which
crying child. they have witnessed. One child told me
"And besides," said the other one that he once followed on foot a shoot-out
quickly, "if we don't go back and fight car chase between the police and a drug
right away, we won't be able to go to the dealer on the street where he lives. De-
playground anymore." spite flying bullets, he pursued the chase
"Right," said the injured child, "and and saw the drug dealer's car crash into a
besides, I don't want my Momma to beat building and the police pull the man out
me. She'll beat me if I don't fight back." of his car and beat him mercilessly. To
"How old is the boy who hit you?" I my query, "Weren't you frightened?" he
asked. simply replied, "No man, it was excit-
"Six," was the response. ing!" This from a twelve-year-old child
The elevator came. We entered. They who the following year attended two fu-
got off on the third floor and disappeared. nerals for murdered teenagers. And this
I got off on the seventh floor thinking, child is expected to grow up with the
"My God, what vile lessons to learn, and same values as you and I.
at such a young age!" I stood in the hall- Every child has told me stories of hav-
way and waited fifteen minutes for my ing to fight other children just to hold
student who was late. He was somewhere onto their pride, sneakers, caps, orjackets,
"outside" and had lost track of the time. or simply to traverse the streets going to
The "outside" and "hangin' out" are and from school or the grocery store.
bewitching seductions for children of all "That's why," said one thirteen-year-old,
ages in inner city neighborhoods. The "you have to travel with a group of friends.
meanness and violence of the streets and Your friends help protect you. Your
playgrounds seem to be negated by the friends are more important than your
air of excitement and festivity. There is family."
always something going on, and the Also of interest is the way the mem-
thought of not being able to hang out and bers of the community over forty have
possibly missing something exciting caus- adopted a strong "us" versus "them"
es more pain than any thoughts of danger. mentality toward the younger people, and
While it is always imminent, danger in many instances, younger people in their
doesn't seem to trouble them at all. This own families. There is a feeling the young
is true for all of my students except thepeople have "gone bad" and that they
twelfth grader who was never permittedsomehow have gotten that way all by
to play outside and consequently, neverthemselves. Consequently, the support
developed a taste for "hangin' out." In system of older community members
fact, she saw herself as somehow betterwhich I remember having in my com-
than her peers because she never cared to munity in Brooklyn in the 1950s and
"hang out." 1960s is no longer available to today's
Yet all of my students, from ages six children. I grew up in an abusive family,
to fifteen, have told me horror stories ofand had it not been for my neighbors and
the mean streets in their neighborhood.my "aunts" and "uncles" throughout the
neighborhood, I hazard to guess where I type of abuse, however, is that, in most
might have been today. They were there cases, it is not mean-spirited. The parents
at my low moments to comfort and coun- just don't seem to know any better. For
sel and slip me a quarter or a piece of most of them it is a matter of condition-
homemade cake. Most of all, they re- ing. It is the way they were raised. I have
minded me often of how special I was. tried in vain to get them to recognize that
This, then, brings us to the family and today is very different from when they
home environment, which in most cases were children and that beating their chil-
dren today is dangerous and even tanta-
mount to murder. They are contributing
Beating children has
to the death of their children. (There is
nothing to do with
a generation of children today who have
teaching discipline been beaten down so badly, they are re-
ferred to as "damaged goods" and the only
is a place to stay away from as much as solution is to lock them up in prisons. For
possible. Home is usually chaotic, messy, all intents and purposes, such children are
uninviting, and not at all conducive to dead; and we murdered them.) I remind
studying. Home is the place where you parents that when the schools, neighbor-
sleep, eat (sometimes), and change your hoods, and larger society have all turned
clothes so you can look "fly" when "han- against their children, the only hope for
gin' out." I have had to buy dictionaries, them is the home. But ignorance, cocaine,
pencils, notebooks, rulers, and numerous and crack are intractable and formidable
other supplies in an effort to help children adversaries.
learn what I was trying to teach them. Tragically, beating children has noth-
Most of the supplies had to be replaced ing to do with teaching discipline. Dis-
repeatedly because the children were un- cipline is taught by instruction, example,
able to keep track of them. Most of the reward, and rational punishment-no
children do not even have suitable surface T.V., no "hangin' out," etc. But to do
space for writing, let alone places to store this, parents have to be totally involved
supplies. Yet, despite the dismal failures with their children. Because of work and
of the home environment, the children trying to find some level of happiness for
somehow are always blamed for not doing themselves, these parents in the Bronx do
things right. And when they appear to be not have the time necessary to invest in
wrong, their parents rely on corporal pun- their children. It is almost as if they view
ishment to teach them the "right" way. a ten or fifteen minute beating of their
All of my Bronx students bear scars on children as having performed a vital fa-
their bodies from having been hit with milial duty, after which everything is sup-
broomsticks, plastic shower hoses, belts posed to fall into place.
with metal studs, or whatever is available Consequently, my children in the
when their mothers "snap." There's no Bronx, who are not disrespectful at all,
way a euphemism such as "spanking" has are the most undisciplined children imag-
any relevance to these children. What they inable, despite regular beatings. They have
get are beatings. The sad thing about this limited attention spans, an inability to ef-
fectively focus, disgraceful study habits, children learn by example. All commands
and are unable to deny or even delay the contrary to the examples provided, only
most mundane gratification-eating, serve to confuse children about what is
drinking, talking to, or arguing with oth- acceptable behavior.

er siblings, moving in their seats, walking This then brings us to the schools, an-
around, chewing gum, and blowing bub- other environment where the contradic-
bles, and so on. As soon as our study ses- tions in inculcation and expectation are
sions finish, they rush outside. Discipline, as cogent as in the home and community.
the efficacious training of body and mind, The following examples illustrate this
is appropriate when it trains body and point.
mind for success in the larger society. Un- Jensu, a straight-A, twelve-year-old
fortunately, the Bronx parents are simply Korean sixth grader, attends a public
incapable of instilling such discipline. school in Queens. He came to the United
They have neither the time nor the talent. States when he was in the fourth grade.
Neither are they capable of instilling DJ, a twelve-year-old African American
a sense of responsibility in their children, sixth grader born in the United States (as
despite trying to beat it into them. To were several generations of his ancestors),
illustrate: all of the parents of my students attends a public school in the Bronx which
are employed and are rarely at home when he also entered in the fourth grade. He is
I meet with the children. (My children failing in every subject. Previously, DJ
are all "latch-key" kids.) For this reason attended a Catholic parochial school for
as well as the need to set a good example, three years and was basically an A/B stu-
I virtually never miss the opportunity to dent. Then, his father left home, his
force them off the streets and into their mother's income changed, and he had to
apartments. (I have missed two appoint- be placed in public school. At the end of
ments in five years.) However, invariably the fourth grade, he was a C/D student;
if it is raining or snowing, I will find a by the end of the fifth grade, a D/F stu-
mother at home when I arrive and my dent; and by the end of the sixth grade,
good example is made out to be some- he was classified as Learning Disabled.
thing bordering on idiocy. She will say Most of Jensu's teachers are either
to me in front of her children, "Child, white or are Koreans who were recruited
what are you doing here in this weather? in South Korea, provided with housing
I thought for sure you wouldn't be com- in New York and a three-year tax-free
ing here today. Not me honey, that job incentive to come to this country. This is
can wait. I don't go out in snow or rain done so that Korean children should not
for nobody. I just stay right here in my feel alienated in public school. Most of
bed all day." But, God forbid, should her DJ's teachers are white, burned out by a
children behave irresponsibly or appear to heartless system and undisciplined chil-
display irreverence for her authority, she dren and are almost totally alienated from
won't hesitate to beat them. Too many their students. In my efforts to save DJ,
of the mothers rely shamelessly on that I called two of his teachers and asked if
asinine, useless dictum, "Don't do as I do, we could work together for his benefit. I
do as I say do." The reality is, however, was told they had no time to give special
attention to one child. Jensu likes and re- extremely well-written phonics work-
spects all of his teachers. DJ likes and book. Sam had no books at all. Her lessons
respects none. were on mimeographed sheets of paper,
Jensu had five textbooks, one for each impossible to keep up with. I bought
subject: math, English, science, history, workbooks for Sam. By November, Kim
and geography. DJ had one textbook, a was beginning to show signs of maturing
social studies book which focused on Af- and no longer required bribery. Sam still
rican American history. Jensu's teachers had difficulty focusing. ByJune 1994, Kim
were rarely absent. DJ had one or two was the second smartest child in her class
and was proud to announce to me, "I can
Black children are read books with chapters!" She was proud
being systematically of her achievements and actually recog-

nized her own maturing process. She
undereducated at the
would often ask me if I remembered when
same time that their
she couldn't do a certain thing. She was
spirits and wills are well versed in the popular culture of the
broken United States and could use correctly such
words as "camouflage," "incredible,"
"courageous," and many other "grown-
teachers absent every week. Jensu received
up" words. She and I had discussions about
homework every night. DJ received home-
the Amazon jungle and the solar system.
workfour orfive times a month, on average.
Jensu developed and maintained good By contrast, Sam knew nothing of
popular culture by June, had a very lim-
study habits. DJ lost the good study habits
he once had. Jensu is praised as represen-
ited and childish vocabulary, could barely
tative of a "model minority." DJ, and
read first grade books, had few arithmetic
thousands of other black children in innerskills, and rarely spoke in full, grammat-
city schools, are categorized as "non-ed-

ical sentences. Whereas Kim was assigned
ucable." I don't know how children are a consistent amount of homework every
expected to learn anything, particularly night,
a Sam was given varying amounts of
subject like math, without books to study.homework once or twice a week. Kim
was thus able to get into a routine and to
At the end of the school year, Jensu was
promoted to the seventh grade, while DJ
develop good study habits. Sam never de-
was held back in the sixth grade. veloped a rhythm nor good study habits.
Another illustration is that of the con-Kim was required to read for twenty min-
trasting situations of Kim, a Korean first

utes every night; she thus developed good
reading skills and a love of books. Sam
grader in a public school on Manhattan's
mid-town East Side, and Sam, an African
was never required to read.
American first grader in a public school Worst of all, Sam's self-esteem was
already suffering. While Kim was eager
in the Bronx. I started working with both
to tackle new ideas, Sam was fearful of
girls at the beginning of the 1993 school
year. At that time, they were at the same the unknown. She had to be coaxed into
intellectual level. Both had to be bribed new areas, and if they proved at all dif-
with cookies or toys to sit still and focus.

ficult, she would just turn off and look as
Kim had two math workbooks and an if she wanted to die. If Kim made a mis-
take, she would simply exclaim, "Oh, THE AXES OF OPPRESSION
stupid me!" and forge straight ahead. By
the end of the school year, both girls were Carl H. Nightingale
promoted to the second grade. Although
Scholars should accept Professor Orlando
Sam learned what I taught her, it was not
Patterson's essay on the "crisis of gender
reinforced by nor did it coincide with her
relations among African Americans" as a
classwork as did my work with Kim. Be- call for more attention to issues of class
cause of abuse, I had to spend a lot of and gender within the American black
study time dealing with Sam's self-esteem
experience. They should also read his es-
problem. If nothing changes in Sam's life,
say as a summons for more understanding
she will simply become another DJ by of the conflict and desperation, as well as
the time she is in the sixth grade. God, the collective action, survival, and accom-
how could anyone abuse such a child?
plishment that are all part of African
None of us can stand aside any longer
American history. However, I would like
feeling blameless about what is happening
to make two cautionary points in greater
in the inner cities of this country. Right-
detail, which focus on his arguments con-
eous indignation about how we "did it"
cerning poor urban black men and wom-
has no meaning. Black children are being
en, and in particular his explanation for
systematically undereducated at the same
the high male homicide and suicide rates
time that their spirits and wills are broken.
in African American inner city neighbor-
The answer is not getting tough on crime, hoods. First, I think we need to be more
building more prisons, or increasing cap-
precise about the ways the "double-bur-
ital punishment. Such measures are noth-
den" analysis of black women's experi-
ing more than violence applied against ence helps us understand the urban Af-
children who have known nothing but
rican American experience, as well as the
violence all their lives. For us to allow
ways in which it unhelpfully conflates
this to happen is disgraceful.
certain questions. Second, I think that the
The children I work with feel very
agonizing experience of violence in late
much alone and unloved; they don't have
twentieth-century black inner cities is
a healthy connection to anything, not even
much too complex and rich to be attrib-
their parents. For this reason, we cannot
uted-even only predominantly-to
continue to proclaim, "It starts in the
slavery and to the ways poor black moth-
home," and assume no further responsi-
ers have treated their sons ever since.
bility. Nor can we expect them to take
responsibility for themselves. They have
received little or none of the training we
received. To expect them to make the
This past June, I had the privilege of
most of the hand life has dealt them pre-
chauffeuring a friend, fourteen-year-old
sumes that they understand what we mean
Saleema Wilkins, to her graduation from
by "responsibility." To those who disdain
middle school in Philadelphia. She cele-
the "victim mentality," know this: If these
children or their parents ever thought brated
of the occasion in her inimitable fash-
themselves as "victims," it would be an
ion-full of fuss, mischievous energy, and
improvement in their thinking. in a flurry of white lace, pearls, and spiked
heels. It was a chance for her mother and across each of their otherwise vibrant per-
me to reminisce about three previous sonalities. Omar has since had a lot of
middle-school graduations with which we trouble with the law and with other young
had some connection. Two of these in-men his age. One gang has beaten him
volved Saleema's older brothers, Fahim
up on a number of occasions, and he, his
brother, and male cousins recently es-
and Omar, and one, a year before, in-
volved her older sister, Theresa. All three
caped a scuffle in which gunshots were
graduations, like the one I was on my wayfired. As a result, Omar has taken to
blockading himself in his bedroom be-
to witness, were occasions of great prom-
hind locked doors for days on end.
ise: all four of the children are extremely
gifted, curious, and creative. All had been Their sisters, by contrast, seem on a
much more constant upswing: they have
accepted into programs that were among
the best in the city for college-bound stu-acquired a wide variety of social skills,
dents. And all, at one time or another,
which help them navigate both the streets
and the world of classrooms and summer
expressed their desire to be the first one
jobs programs. Their connection to school
of their family to take the next step and
graduate from high school-despite ag-
seems, as a result, much surer. And, though
onizing poverty, despite being on wel-
they are well into the time of life when
their girlfriends start having families of
fare, despite the violence of their neigh-
borhood (which killed their father at their
a own and dropping out of school,
their mom's relatively constant support
young age in 1985), despite various forms
of racism, and despite all kinds of sexism.
and some extra help from outside the fam-
ily seems to have minimized those risks.
It's still too early to tell for sure, of course,
By no means do all women in Saleema's
because Theresa has just finished her first
neighborhood thrive like this: too many
year and Saleema hasn't even started high
suffer from mental illness, are helplessly
school yet, but already it's clear that Sa-
addicted to alcohol and crack (which has
leema's family has followed a broader pat-
been a "women's drug" to a degree that
tern documented statistically by Professor
Patterson and noticed by quite a few
other drugs have not been), or have, in
members of poor African American fam- desperation, subjected their children to
ilies I have known. As Saleema's mother spirit-withering violence. And, a "bullet
remarked quite pointedly, the boys have without a name on it" could at any time
just had many more problems than the instantly end anyone's promise in the
girls "keeping their act together." Bothtough neighborhood where Saleema and
of Saleema's brilliant older brothers Theresa live. But there is a kind of staying
power in the Wilkins girls, one that peo-
quickly dropped out of their fancy schools,
and both have told me at different times
ple in the neighborhood sometimes rec-
that they feel like they haven't lived ognize
up as a female trait: a sense of spiritual
strength and ability to negotiate inevita-
to their potential; both were near tears
ble painful experiences.
when revealing this thought. In different
ways this thought has corroded each of That sort of strength faded from their
their senses of self and laid streaks of bit-
brothers' lives sometime earlier in their
teens, to be replaced with a much more

terness and self-fulfilling fear of failure
transparent and fragile facade: a "front" better between the social lines across
of bluster, masculine boasting, and ag- which oppression occurs, and the pain that
gression. Indeed men in Saleema's neigh- it causes. I think it would be a shame if
borhood are probably more likely than all we concluded from the evidence of
women to succumb to the agonies of black women's gender oppression or the
mental illness and drug addiction, and of evidence of black men's lower rates of
course, they are much more likely to die success in mainstream institutions and
violent deaths. It is no wonder that people their higher rates of murder and suicide
like Saleema's mother often remark that was that either group is "more oppressed"
it is much harder to raise boys than girls. than the other. Those conclusions seem
How well does the "double burden" invidious at best and not at all useful to
efforts to end the oppression of anyone.

analysis help explain what is going on in
Saleema's family? Certainly Saleema andRather, that evidence should suggest the
much more useful conclusion that black
Theresa have faced some variety of white
domination on account of their race andmen and black women have experienced
some variety of male domination on ac-

various forms of oppression differently, or
count of their gender. In addition, of
perhaps more accurately, that in the face
course, Saleema and Theresa also endure
of a variety of oppressions, they have, as
severe forms of late twentieth-century
groups, acted differently. That in turn,
economic alienation, and, as young peo-
suggests that to understand more specif-
ple, they have suffered from the abuse ically
of why people in Saleema's neighbor-
adult power. If they, like other black
hood act in desperate ways we need to ask
women they have known, were lesbian
other questions. We need a precise ac-
or disabled, they would face further forms
counting of the material and psychic costs
exacted by racism, class inequity, sexism,
of oppression. Insofar as "double burden"
and parental dominance among men and
analysis begins with the assumption that
women in inner cities. To do that, we
the axes of oppression faced by black
women are multiple-involving at least
need knowledge of the kinds of hurt that
race and gender-it is right on. It will people
be have collected in their emotional
necessary as well, of course, to see what
memories as they grow up, and what the
sources of those memories are. But we
kind of "multiple-axial" analysis applies
to Fahim and Omar, especially with re-
also need to know how people cope with
gard to questions of gender-something
that hurt, express it, compensate for it,
that so far scholars have indeed been slow
and seek to survive it. Have those strat-
to accomplish. egies been effective, or not? Which kinds

have involved violence as an essential in-
However, insofar as "double burden"
gredient? We need to know where these
analysis implies a necessary and sufficient
strategies have originated, and what has
link between the numbers of axes of op-
legitimized them-ethnic traditions;
pression and the degree of harm experi-
enced by the oppressed, something isbroader "mainstream" values; construc-
clearly wrong. Here the word "burden"
tions of class, status, or respectability; pe-
is at fault; I suggest abandoning it and
culiarities in the structure of people's
replacing it with words that distinguish
work; or even positive attributes that can
be wrung out of the changing complexity where, parenting techniques in the Wil-
of prescribed gender roles and racial ster- kins' neighborhood nearly universally
eotypes. Finally, we need to know how draw upon philosophies that sanction the
access to these different resources itself use of force against children, fathers em-
has varied by race, class, age, and gender. ploy them as well as mothers. And if
In short, we need a gendered history of mothers' connections to their daughters
the connections between various axes of often seem at least somewhat closer emo-
domination, experiences of victimization,

tionally than their relationships with their
the possibilities of individual agency, and
desperation.
Aggressive parenting
practices, I suspect,
have ancient origins
Professor Patterson begins to ask some of
sons, that might have to do with gender
these sorts of questions in his essay. His
answers, which for contemporary poor
traits that have roots at least partly beyond
black urban men center on the legacy of
the power of families to control, namely
slavery and on mother-son relationships,women's greater likelihood in the broader
leave too much of the story out. culture to demonstrate empathy or to ar-
Families are definitely some part of theticulate feeling verbally and in other non-
violent ways. If inner city boys do often
equation of male inner city desperation.
But my feeling, which comes from sixfeel resentment towards their mothers, and
years of life in Saleema's neighborhoodif they glorify "motherfuckers," they also
very often rise to the defense of their
during which I got to know her brothers
and their male friends very well, is thatmothers' honor on the streets. "Moth-
the connection between the power oferfucker" may be a "trope" unique to black
American inner cities, but I am not aware
women in poor urban black families and
the likelihood of violence among boys hasof any trend of actual violence, sexual or
otherwise, between sons and their moth-
been too often exaggerated. First of all,
though adult women do often possess aers; the "dozens" universally refer to oth-
er people's mothers, not the boy's own;
level of moral authority in the affairs of
extended family networks and though and matricide has never been, as far as I
can tell, as common an occurrence as it
they tend to make most decisions about
may be among the Japanese youth Pro-
the raising of their children, they hardly
constitute anything like what used to befessor Patterson refers to in his essay. Also,
called a "matriarchy." Various forms of
an inner city boy's resentment toward his
mother may reflect less her gender than
male dominance intervene in many con-
her class (Omar harbors constant anger at
sequential ways into the lives of mothers
what he sees as his mother's unwilling-
and their children, giving husbands and
boyfriends license to withdraw economicness to work), or her race (many of the
"dozens" make derogatory references to
support from the family or to act violently
to control other family members and fam- mothers' blackness or other racial attri-
ily resources. If, as I have argued else-

butes), or instances when she misuses her
adult authority over children. Indeed, if sure if they have "increased") for a num-
any one component of family life most ber of reasons: they often doubtlessly serve
contributes to kids' tendency to act ag- as a way for parents to vent the frustra-
gressively, it comes to them across the line tions of poverty-forceful demonstra-
of age, not gender: aggressive parenting tions of control over children are often
not only leaves kids scarred with hurtful seen as a mark of status and respectability,
or even traumatic memories, it also in- especially in comparison with parents who
herently conveys the message that might are neglectful; in part they probably re-
makes right and that violence needs to be flect the sometimes overwhelming re-
punished with further violence. These sponsibilities faced by single parents; in-
practices are, of course, part of the prov- ner city adults often think that their kids
ince of adult men as well as women, and need rough treatment if they are going
boys' memories of violent fathers-not to to be adequately prepared for life on the
mention fathers who have left the fami- streets; finally, some black parents feel that
ly-have had deep consequences in the in public their children need to be strictly
lives of most boys I got to know in Fahim reined so that white people who may be
and Omar's community. watching don't get evidence to back up
Aggressive parenting practices them- racist stereotypes.
selves, I suspect, have ancient origins. I Parental aggression has not by any
have seen no evidence that convinces me means been the only source of hurtful
that those practices among poor African feelings or values of violence for young
Americans are any more the result of slav- inner city residents as they grow up,
ery than of the general trend in nine- though. Omar, Fahim, and their siblings
teenth-century American agricultural so- and peers all were familiar with vastly
ciety to value children predominantly forcomplex codes of behavior that included
the values of cooperation inherent to ex-
Codes of violent tended families and preached in schools,
masculine honor have as well as values that permitted or pre-
scribed violence as a means to uphold per-
popped up in many sonal honor, to right certain kinds of
places and at many wrongs, to seek vengeance for victimi-
times in history zation, or to serve as entertainment. Any
one of these codes can be invoked by
their labor and not their emotional life;young women as easily as young men, but
or of America's evangelical Christianin addition there are still other codes that
traditions, with their nostrums about are more clearly male: those which link
sparing rods and spoiling children; or ofmisogyny, homophobia, a cult of fire-
America's particularly visceral proclivity arms, and sometimes open advocacy of
for aggressive law-and-order policies and homicide with measures of masculine
other violent punishments of violence. In"heart."
the late twentieth-century inner city those I think there is some wisdom in look-
parenting practices have persisted (I don't ing to the Southern, and perhaps even
believe there is any reliable way to mea- slavery-based, roots of some of the values
that helped to sustain violence as a coping city some of its values of violence, they
strategy in many poor urban African also gave it time-honored traditions of
American communities, particularly cooperation, namely those enshrined in
among men. The importance of violence extended families. Whatever the case, it
to men's sense of honor and "heart," for appears from a number of statistical stud-
example, looks and sounds a lot like sim- ies that northern cities have been much
ilar ideas among nineteenth-century white more fertile grounds for violence and male
southerners. And much of the folklore of abandonment of families than have rural
black "badmen" like Stagolee and Shine places and southern cities.
derives from the South, albeit most likely To explain the growing rates of vio-
the urban South in the last decade of the lent behavior among urban black men in
nineteenth century, possibly reflecting a the late twentieth century we need to give
resurgence during that period of white predominance to changes that have hap-
stereotypes of blacks as inherently prone pened in cities during the late twentieth
to violence. Still, codes of violent mas- century. The collapse of the urban in-
culine honor have popped up in many dustrial economy has left young, un-
places and at many times in history, and skilled black men without the opportu-
it's not at all clear exactly how or if they nities to create identities as family bread-
are all linked across the centuries. Ask
winners, and as a result, with lifelong
Fahim or Omar who Stagolee or Shinememories of frustration and humiliation.
The urban social order based on racial
is, and they won't be able to tell you. The
fact that rates of urban deathly violencesegregation has continued to generate deep
escalated as these heroes faded into ob- memories of shame about blackness that
have withstood the efforts of black leaders
scurity suggests something else was at
work. Slavery doesn't help much in ex-
to inculcate racial pride. To express those
plaining the high rates of young blackfrustrations, and compensate for those hu-
miliations, young poor black men have
Consumerism in the created a gendered class and racial iden-
tity, one largely derived from selected val-
face of poverty is too ues and images of mainstream American
difficult to sustain, too culture. Its class component is based on
likely to turn into a young men's roles as consumers and es-
passion to kill pecially upon their particularly enthusi-

astic and often desperately driven forms
of mainstream conspicuous consumption.
male suicide either. They are an urban
Its racial component is based on recently
phenomenon of the 1970s and '80s, and
resurgent mainstream stereotypes of in-
as Roger Lane has shown, suicide rates
herently hypersexed violent black men,
among African Americans have previous-
which young inner city men have trans-
ly been much lower than those of whites.
formed from articles of hatred into a source
If the South, or any one of its many varied
of pride in the form of the "baaad nigga"
and changing black or white communitieshero. These in turn are sewn together
from the past century, did give the inner
with other heroes and images from mass-
media entertainment, which help legiti- preference but also among peers-and too
mize a gender ideology based on the link often to death.
between masculinity and violent expres- Kathy Peiss, Gary Gerstle, Dean Rob-
sions of vulnerability. inson, and David Dorsey all contributed
How effective a coping strategy has core thoughts to this essay. All names of
resulted? Inner city masculine culture children have been changed.
contains hopeful elements, particularly
those that are least derived from the main-
stream-such as rap performance and

street basketball, which in themselves
serve as nonviolent expressions of pain,
IRONIES OF RACE
even as sources of sustained pleasure and
personal strength. But the overarching
structures of the identity are much less
Jim Sleeper
secure and much more dangerous. Con- One of the more dispiriting aspects of
sumerism in the face of poverty is too racial discourse in America today is white
difficult to sustain, too frustrating in itself, writers' failure to acknowledge, except in
and too likely to turn, as in the case of passing, the historical depth and enduring
"sneaker murders," into a passion to kill. legacies of slavery and Jim Crow for many
Inverted racial stereotypes, no matter how American blacks. But equally dispiriting
ingenious the ironies involved, still carry is some black writers' failure to acknowl-
with them the load of self-contempt. As edge that many whites' racial attitudes
for gender ideologies based on these and have changed considerably since the legal
other aggressive and misogynistic images, demises of slavery, Jim Crow, and the
they can only be said to be deeply impli- great cultural reckonings of the civil rights
cated in the crisis of inner city gender movement. Even some of today's most
relations and the oppression of black acrimonious racial polarizations reflect
women. Moreover, inner city gender op- something less than the old racist stig-
pression has an even wider circle of vic- matizing of blacks that, as Roger Wilkins
tims. For our "multiple-axial" analysis of has put it, was "lathered into the foun-
inner city male desperation to be com- dations of the Republic."
plete, we need to be open to the thought Orlando Patterson's magisterial
that the gender ideologies created by poor "Blacklash" is the only recent work I've
African American men in the hot face of seen that offers partisans on both sides of
late twentieth-century deindustrializa- this barricaded racial discourse a dignified
tion and racism, using building blocks alternative to what he calls the "failure
provided by America's broader culture, to explore and communicate." It will be

have harmed and diminished the souls of interesting to see how many take up his
those men themselves. Furthermore, those brave and generous offer to transcend ra-
gender ideologies have licensed, if not cial partisanship-and how many run
compelled, poor black men to systemat- away, shouting imprecations at Patterson
ically oppress other poor black men, not as they flee to racial self-absolution.
only across age lines and lines of sexual Inevitably, much discussion of "Black-
lash" will address its rendering of black er hand, as he also explains, the misogyny
gender conflicts as the emblems of a pro- and brutality of far too many such men
found racial paradox: On the one hand, has taken on a life of its own, as sons
such conflicts were engendered largely by struggle to cope, in their own brutal ways,
historic white racism, but, on the other, with abandonment and/or abuse by their
they now perpetuate themselves inde- fathers, and to grapple, again often bru-
pendently of racist intent or interven- tally, to escape the sometimes overween-
tion. Patterson's admirably complex and ing, equally abusive attentions of their
candid analysis of both sides of this par- over-compensating single mothers. In
adox should help discerning readers to Patterson's account, as in many others,
envision new possible solutions to gender these miseries are passed from generation
conflicts that involve both personal and
racial or ethnic self-discovery.
We are passing the
But "Blacklash" also highlights a larg-
time when it is
er, perhaps more counterintuitive, and
certainly more instructive racial paradox: possible to blame
when we are willing to acknowledge the whites for causing
malleability and significant abatement of
black brutality by
white racism since the last century (and
stigmatizing blacks as
especially in the last three decades), we
are more likely to bring non-black audi- uniquely depraved
ences to appreciate the terrible stigma and
devastation of historic racism. And it is to generation, sometimes subtly and in-
precisely when we have acknowledged timately, even in the absence of racist ma-
the full horror of our country's past, its levolence.
popularly ingrained and officially prom- Certainly today's black gender prob-
ulgated racism, that we are most likely to lems can be compounded by white racist
appreciate the potent promise of a com-contempt, and even (perhaps especially)
mon, interracial American culture that by the unwitting racist condescension of
emerged in the most heroic moments ofwhite liberals, as expressed in certain wel-
the civil rights movement and that, I be- fare policies and in their habitual reluc-
lieve, touched more whites more pro- tance to hold blacks to even the most base-
foundly than many of them are willing line cultural and moral standards. But if
to admit in this time of renewed racial whites play any truly substantial part in
polarization and balkanization. promoting sexual warfare within the black
The gender-relations paradox that iscommunity, it is probably not through
the most obvious topic of Patterson's essayracism but through their own descent into
is certainly instructive. On the one hand,familial confusion, conflict, and break-
as he explains, the intensity and ubiquitydown. That generally proceeds without
of conflict between black men and wom- any reference to blacks, and it is portrayed
en today reflects the uniquely brutal dis-increasingly as normative in mainstream

possession and degradation of black mencultural products that are accessible to-
under slavery and Jim Crow. On the oth-and, indeed, exploitative of-blacks as
well as whites. As Patterson notes, the can we find the antidote to heal ourselves. We
Clarence Thomas-Anita Hill hearings can only reclaim ourselves byfirst reclaiming
riveted most Americans not because the ourpast, individually and collectively. And we
protagonists were black but because they can only do so by returning to its traumatic
were successful, articulate, attractive pro- source and in an orphic grasp of selfliberation
fessionals whose blackness didn't keep come to say, as the widow of Malcom X said
them from representing career aspirations recently at Harvard, that everything we are,
and workplace gender-relations problems and have been is all "because of us."
that are at least as familiar to whites as to
blacks. Notice that Patterson's pathbreaking ap-
The Thomas-Hill conflict's transracial proach offers intimations not only of black
resonance rightly points Patterson to a communal self-recovery and self-absorp-
racial paradox that is even larger and, to tion but also of an individual self-discov-
my mind, more fateful than the one that ery and affirmation that are inherently
frames gender battles as both contingent transracial and conducive to full mem-
upon racism and independent of it. Again, bership and dignity in a common human
that larger paradox is: only by understand- culture. Such a culture happens to be what
ing what has changed and continues to the United States was founded to nourish
change for the better in white attitudes and promote, what its civic culture has
toward blacks-even in some instances of aspired to be, and what the Constitution
current racial polarization-can we grasp over which Clarence Thomas now sits in
fully the perverse potency of slavery, Jim judgment is supposed to protect.

Crow, and other racist malevolence; yet, Moreover, when we understand black
ironically, only when we fully grasp that sufferings not only in terms of the historic
perverse potency and the "seismic shocks" monstrosities that perpetrated them but
which historic racism administered to also in terms of the human dimensions of
blacks can we understand the extent to the struggle for redemption that accom-
which some problems in the black com- panied them, we can appreciate that many
munity are that community's own to re- American white ethnics who have been
solve. As Patterson puts it: (quite credibly) accused of stigmatizing
blacks have themselves also, to a lesser
Black men and women of all classes have a extent, been victims of stigmatization and
poisoned relationship. Slavery and the system of the subtle and intimate miseries that
of racial oppression brewed and first injected pass from parent to child in partial con-
that poison, and poverty, along with racism, sequence of systemic, historic oppres-
prolongs it. But blaming these alone will get sions.
us nowhere-not only because it is we who Even as I was reading Patterson's vivid

now inject the poison into our own misguided descriptions of the depradations of black
souls, through the ways we bring up our chil- youth from broken or never-formed fam-
dren, through the ways we relate, or fail to ilies, I read in a morning newspaper of
relate, to each other, through the values we three white teenage boys from broken and
cherish and the ones we choose to spurn, but troubled homes in central Massachusetts
because only as individual men and women who had just killed a 73-year-old man
while breaking into his house in Tampa, UNCIVIL WAR
Florida. Not only are we passing the time
when it is possible for some whites to Elsie B. Washington
blame blacks alone for such brutality, we How did black American men and wom-
are passing the time when it is possible en arrive at their current state of Uncivil
to blame whites for causing black brutal- War? In the past, black couples struggled
ity by stigmatizing blacks as uniquely de- together through slavery, Reconstruc-
praved. It is perhaps a bit easier for us to tion, the effects of Jim Crow, the Great
understand that white ethnics who resist Depression, and World War II and came
racial change in the urban neighborhoods through intact, still largely bound in solid
and schools where they have been raised marital and family relationships. The
are responding not only to empirically present-day crisis in black male-female re-
valid fears of violently anti-social young lations cannot be attributed to one event,
blacks, but also to fears of such anti-social but grew out of the economic, social, and
violence in themselves. political upheavals of the last thirty years.
I cannot think of a more compelling The years following World War II
reason to renew and revivify a common promised morejob opportunities for black
American civic culture rather than to seek men and women. More than one million
to advance one's ethnic or racial group en had served in the war. In the wake of the
bloc by stereotyping and trumpeting one's war, the Truman administration institut-
ethnic or racial victimization. As Patter- ed the "Fair Deal Policy" to eliminate
son puts it, inherent in returning to thesegregation in government service; or-
traumatic historical source of such victim- ganizations like the NAACP and the Ur-
ization is the "orphic grasp of self-liber- ban League continued to exert pressure
ation" that posits personal as well as com-for civil rights. Wartime opportunities
munal responsibility. Champions of com-were expanded post-war, as jobs opened
munal redemption through intergroup up in the automotive, electronics, chem-
confrontation and conflict offer what ical, and aircraft industries.
amounts, at best, to a mere phase in, a The next decade and a half was a pe-
transition to, the recovery of one's hu-riod of rising expectations. The efforts to
manity. Patterson writes from and en-end segregation developed into the Civil
riches this essential truth so profoundly Rights Movement and new laws aimed at
that whites and blacks who truly com-improving opportunities for blacks. In the
prehend "Blacklash" should find it as re- struggle for "integration," black men and
warding as it is painful and humbling to women marched and protested side by side
read. with fair-minded whites to end racism.
Conflicts between black men and
women, however, were highlighted by

the structure of the major civil rights or-
ganizations. Many of the organizations
were closely allied to, and modeled after,
black churches in which men were the
leaders. In most churches the pastors and
important officers were men, while wom- on the front lines, however, singing,
en were assigned to auxiliary manage- demonstrating, and going to jail along
ment and support positions. In Martin Lu- with the black men. And a few women,
ther King, Jr.'s Southern Christian Lead- like Ella Baker, Fannie Lou Hamer, Sep-
ership Conference, in the NAACP, the tima Clark, and Bernice Reagon gained
Urban League, and the Congress of Racial prominence for their courage and the
Equality (CORE), black men held the leadership they gave to the struggle. They
leadership positions that set policy and were the exceptions, though, rather than
decided on strategy. The feeling of black the rule.
men, and some black women, within and During the period from 1954 through
outside the organizations was that it was 1968, black men and women had a pur-
important for men to be in the forefront, pose, a national struggle to attend to.
to assert themselves as leaders in a manner Whether they lived in the North or the
that emulated the larger, white society. South, the struggle demanded that they
Black men acknowledged the traditional present a united front. But there were pri-
strength of black women, but now they vate discussions taking place between black
wanted women to take a more subservient men and women about their roles during
role as a supportive, rather than an equal, this period and later during the push for
partner. black power. Black women who were ac-
tive in the front lines, especially those
who were good theorists or tacticians, re-
In the 1960s, black
sented the fact that they were being pushed
men tried to persuade
back and basically told to be quiet. Al-
black women that it though there was no talk then of women's
was for the good of liberation, some women were not as ac-
the race that the men quiescent as others and wanted to be rec-
ognized for their contributions. Black men
be in the lead
tried to persuade black women that it was
for the good of the race that the men be
For the most part, black women ininthe
the lead. It was another instance of
movement were in agreement withemulating

the those who were in power.
strategy: they had been long-time White
wit- men had the vast majority of lead-
nesses to the black man's emasculation ership roles in the larger society, so it
under racism and segregation. Generally
seemed that to be "equal" black men had
speaking, black women were ready for
to be the leaders of black organizations.
black men to take on the role of "warrior"
There was also an implicit promise that
and stand up to the system in a forceful,
when the struggle was over, black women
would be allowed to fill larger, more
nonviolent way. As a result, a great many
prominent roles. Perhaps black women
women in the movement worked happily
behind the scenes, wo-manned the offices,didn't want to appear to be fulfilling the
cooked meals, and kept house for vol-
myths and stereotypes of the black ma-
unteer marchers and Freedom Riders. triarchy, the castrating, domineering black
There were a number of black women female. Or maybe, they, too, believed that
to be integrated with whites, they needed be a highly emotional and sensitive sub-
to behave the same as whites. In any case, ject for many.
black women largely submitted to the
men's wishes.
There was also another area of uneas-
iness between black men and black wom- The gains made by the Civil Rights
en. A lot of black men in the Civil RightsMovement opened several windows of
and Black Power movements considered opportunity, and expectations were high
that women were "rewards" for soldiers that the long-hoped-for day of equal op-
"on the front lines" and that women ex- portunity had arrived. New laws were en-
isted to have sex and to perform domestic acted purportedly to grant equal rights to
duties. A popular saying, attributed to all. Federal programs allowed many blacks
Stokely Carmichael (now Kwame Toure), to go to college or to enter job training
to the effect that "the best position for programs that would lead to employ-
women [in the struggle] is prone," is a ment. For the first time, black men out-
ready example. numbered black women on college cam-
That attitude angered some black puses, even as black women were enrol-
women, but they and others were hurt ling in record numbers.
even more when many black men in the This historic moment would quickly
1960s and 1970s turned to white female pass. Occupational and educational pat-
activists for companionship and sex. Black terns, developed over the course of a cen-
men explained that dating white women tury, swiftly reasserted themselves.
was "revenge" against white men for rap- In any number of black families with
ing black women during slavery. Assum- male and female siblings, one or more of
ing for the moment the truthfulness of the females will obtain a college educa-
that claim, the battle between black and tion. However, the males in the family
white men over white women still left go into the armed services, find skilled or
black women on the sidelines, alone. More unskilled labor, or, if they don't want a
than a few black women feel that the regimented life, earn a livelihood on the
street, "hustling." Unlike their sisters,
black men who slept with white women
during the 1960s and 1970s movements
boys are encouraged to be willful and in-
were "claiming the prize" that had for volved
so in sports and other "manly" pur-
long been forbidden. suits, or to work part-time. Girls, on the
other hand, are taught to be disciplined,
Some black women, refusing to be left
to study hard, and to help out at home.
out, responded favorably to the attention
they received from white men in the
A lot of blacks attribute this pattern to
movement. During this rather unprece-
the old saying that black mothers "raise
their daughters, but love their sons." Of
dented period of black and white togeth-
course, gendered differences in educa-
erness, many people had their first op-
tional attainment had its origins in Amer-
portunity to really know a person of the
other race. However, the issue of whiteican history.
lovers was a source of contention between Traditionally, black parents knew that
black men and women and continues to their sons could obtain blue collar occu-
pations, and thereby earn enough to sup- on to higher education. Consequently,
port themselves and their families. many black men have been unable to take
Daughters, however, were almost invari- advantage of the same educational grants
ably fated for work as a domestic, without and opportunities that black women ob-
the benefit of more extensive education. tained.
Thus black parents encouraged their

daughters to be good students in large
measure because college was the only way
for them to avoid "Miss Ann's" kitchen. The 1970s saw openings for blacks in
Their sons, who could earn "good" mon- white collar positions in corporate Amer-
ey in factories and foundries, often ica that previously had not existed. Ad-
dropped out of school early to get a job. ditionally, the Women's Liberation
This historical adaptation to post-war Movement created a push to open doors
conditions evolved into disparate expec- for women in business; in the age of Af-
tations for the education of black boys and firmative Action, as has often been noted,
girls. The lowered anticipation of success, employers could fulfill both gender and
along with the larger society's ever-pres- racial quotas by hiring a black woman.
Black men also suspected that black wom-
Black men did not see en were advancing at male expense be-
themselves as cause white employers perceive black
women to be less threatening.
oppressors of their
Although few black women demon-
women but as the strated with the early feminists, many did
victims of white agree with the call for equality with men.
Issues of sexism and male domination
America
raised by white feminists struck a chord
ent apprehensiveness about all black males, black women, who in turn re-ex-
with
amined their own relationships with black
have combined to ensure that black boys
men. And the truth was that sexism was,
don't receive the attention or encourage-
ment in school that they should. In and
the always had been, a central part of their
relationships.
last several years black social scientists and
By tradition and circumstance black
others have begun to describe how black
men occupied the dominant role in most
boys are discriminated against in the pri-
black families and organizations, a situa-
mary grades. Many black males recall their
early school years when their natural tion
en- that black women had by and large
accepted. But as black women began to
ergy earned them the label of "problem"
students. Others who were inattentiveachieve
or financial independence (thanks to
better educational and occupational op-
disinterested in the style of teaching were
portunities), they became less willing to
called slow learners and put into separate
classes where even less was expectedput
of up with sexism, or any other type of
them. Those black boys for whom aca-abuse, from black men. Black women also
demic attainment is discouraged, bothacquired
at greater control over their lives
school and in the community, rarelywith
go the advent of easier methods of birth
control and the legalization of abortion- While many black men say that they
over the protests of black men. As Paula are not intimidated by a woman with more
Giddings noted in When and Where I En- education and/or a higher salary, educa-
ter, "Throughout the social history of tion and money continue to be sore points
black women, children are more impor- between black men and women. Black
tant than marriage in determining the men say that it is not so much the money
woman's domestic role." or the degree but the attitude of superi-
Black men did not see themselves as ority that these black women bring to the
oppressors of their women but as the vic- relationship. There are black men, though,
tims of white America. For the most part, who say they welcome the opportunity
they berated the Women's Lib Move- to date or marry well-paid executive
ment as an activity of spoiled white wom-women.
en who wanted to denigrate the same
white men who had put them on ped-
estals. Black women had no place in that
movement, black men declared. By and In the last twenty-five years there
large, black men feel that any problems been major changes on the dating
between black men and women can be marriage front for black women and
worked out by the two of them, withoutBoth sexes are marrying later and
recourse to feminist analysis, outside have reservations about marrying a
counsel, or therapy. Conversely, blackBlack women, armed with the mea
women have been more willing to bringadequately support themselves, set
their relationships and other problems tosights on partners with similar asset
therapy. They are concerned that the con- credentials. Many refuse to accept a
ditions that have placed them ahead ofwho has any less and so are hesitatin
black men in education and job attain-marry at all.
ment have driven a wedge between black The reluctance to marry is only
men and women. factor contributing to the large num
Part of this distancing is created by the of single black folks today; hard econ
new unwillingness of some black women times and the after-effects of contin
to remain in the background or to deny racism are also strong. As the 1992
themselves opportunities for personal ad- Children of the Dream by Audrey Edw
vancement. Women are vying for the and Craig K. Polite states, "For the
highest positions they can achieve and are rican American, race continues not
challenging men to overcome the same to make a critical impact on succes
obstacles that women have. Black women
achievement, but also to skew how b
know that if they can succeed in school success and achievement are viewed: in-
and the working world, so can black men. evitably it is in relation to white success."
To many black men this attitude makes This feeling that blacks never quite mea-
black women less desirable as marriage sure up contributes to the plagues of drug
partners. Other women, sympathetic to and alcohol abuse, and homicide; the high
the black man's plight, agree that his life percentage of black prison inmates deci-
is more difficult. mate the numbers of eligible black men.
*0 0
a searing crisis in their relationships, a

crisis that was most dramatically mani-
Although the obstacles
fested in the Thomas-Hill hearings. So
different from those fac
argues Orlando Patterson in "Blacklash:
brought here hundreds
The Crisis of Gender Relations Among
same determination to overcome is re-
African Americans." In Patterson's view,
quired to ensure survival. African Amer-
the hearings opened the cupboard and ex-
icans who are knowledgeable about the
posed a skeleton-relations between even
history of blacks in America believe that middle-class "brothers" and "sisters" are
the current situation has its genesis in the
laced with power plays, secret desires, an-
events of the past. Things changed dra-
imosity, betrayal, and pain. The black di-
matically for blacks educationally and fi-
vorce rate is twice as high as the white.
nancially after the social movements of
Throughout the 1980s, some sixty per-
the 1960s and 1970s, but those years also
cent of black children were born to single
brought upheavals in traditional black re-
mothers. There is a palpable absence of
lationships. stable unions between black men and
Today there seems to be an impasse
women. Their marriages are in trouble,
with many black women and men look-
and not a few dramaturgical creations, fic-
ing at each other as adversaries rather than
tional and nonfictional texts, and respon-
partners and friends. It is also apparent,
dents in social scientific surveys express
however, that their long history togetherdissatisfaction with the state of black male-
in this country has created a durable bond
female relations.
that even the worst of times and condi-
Related to the alleged crisis in black
tions won't sever. There is an awareness
male-female relationships is a chronic
as this century comes to an end that black
condition of socioeconomic deprivation.
men and women must end this internal
While there are pockets and episodes of
strife, the Uncivil War they have waged
black social mobility, nearly every index
for years.
of economic well-being suggests a com-
Copyright the Noble Press, Inc. Ex- munity laden with catastrophe. Reports
cerpted from Uncivil War: The Struggle Be- from The State of Black America 1994 tell
tween Black Men and Women (Chicago: The of chronic hyper-unemployment, low
Noble Press, 1995). Reprinted with per- wages, absurdly high levels of incarcera-
mission.
tion, disproportionate levels of involve-
ment in drug consumption and street traf-
ficking, and welfare dependency. The ti-
tles and contents of some recent best-sell-
THE "CRISIS" IN HUMAN
ing works-Faces at the Bottom of the Well
RELATIONS
(Derrick Bell), Two Nations: Separate, Hos-
tile, Unequal (Andrew Hacker), and Race
Yehudi Webster
Matters (Cornel West)-indicate that Af-
Analysis of the African American expe- rican Americans are in dire straits. But
rience indicates that African American
how do these conditions affect gender re-
men and women have been experiencing lations? Which African Americans are in
trouble? Which class within that popu- doubly oppressed; and (3) an endorsement
lation? Which generation? Which gen- of a cultural-historical explanation of
der? Indeed, which gender is in more black, including middle-, lower-, and un-
trouble, and what, or who, is responsible derclass, behavior. Conceiving the dis-
for their troubled relations? Explanations functional black family as an inheritance
abound in genetic deficiency, assimila- of a slave past, Patterson re-presents Dan-
tionist (Robert Park's race relations cy- iel P. Moynihan's "family deficit" thesis,
cle), power-conflict, cultural deficiency, a thesis that contains implicit and explicit
family deficit, psycho-historical (slavery), references to "samboification," or, the de-
institutional racism, and class (Marxist and moralization and stupefaction of slaves.
Weberian) perspectives on the black ex- Although certainly aware of the lim-
perience. itations of historico-cultural explanations
There is a chronological sequence in of contemporary social relations, Patter-
the appearance of these explanations. But son attempts to bring slavery back in as a
the publication of William J. Wilson's sculptor of black psychology and a source
Declining Significance of Race in 1978 con-
tinued a practice that has since gained Overall relations
steam in studies of the black experience- between men and
the unmasking of intra-racial socioeco-
nomic, or "class" differences. By virtue
women are replete
of the re-emergence of feminism in the with violence
late 1960s and the institutionalization of
of the crisis in black gender relations:

black and women's studies at colleges and
"Black men and women of all classes have
universities, it could not be long before
"black feminist" searchlights detected
a poisoned relationship. Slavery and the
system of racial oppression brewed and
jeopardized specificities in black women's
first injected that poison, and a poverty
experiences and troubled black male-fe-
male relationships rooted in the black
along with racism prolongs it." Here the
male's sexism. Developing a race-classmetaphor of poison serves to dramatize
the crisis, but it does not identify it.
motif popularized by Myrdal's American
Dilemma, O.C. Cox's Caste, Class, and The analytic contours of the slavery
thesis may be summarized as follows:
Race, E. Franklin Frazier's The Black Bour-
geoisie, and William J. Wilson's The De-
slavery bequeathed emasculated black men
and masculinized black women, produc-
clining Significance ofRace, analyses of race-
class intersections have come of age; to-
ing a tension in black male-female rela-
tions; these tensions are manifest in soured
gether with gender analysis, they are be-
relationships and troubled black middle-
ing constituted as a distinct field of study.
Orlando Patterson's intervention into class marriages, as well as a matriocentric
this field takes the form of (1) an affir- lower class family structure that produces
mation of a "terrible crisis" in black gen-young black males with misogynistic,
der relations; (2) a repudiation of a car- matricidal (symbolically and subcon-
dinal thesis within "African American sciously), and fratricidal behaviors. This
feminist" thinking-black women arethesis, then, replicates certain Weberian
sociological insights, Freud's Oedipal should demonstrate is the specificity of
symbolism, and a historicist interpreta- crisis-torn "black" male-female relations.
tion of the present as an elongation of the What is "black" about these relations, i.e.,
past. In a poignant passage Patterson spells peculiar enough to warrant such a de-
out the legacy of African American slav- scription? The black divorce rate-even
ery. if twice as high as the white-is unac-
ceptable as an index of the crisis, for if it
This, then, is what we have inherited: a lower were to be disaggregated by income, ed-
class with gender attitudes and behaviors that ucation, region, and age, it would turn
are emotionally and socially brutalizing and out to be not a black divorce rate, but an
physically self-destructive. The posturing, average of various divorce rates among
pathological narcissism of "cool pose" mas- "blacks," some of which are lower than
culinity with its predatory, antimaternal sex- those of some "whites." Black male-fe-
uality, self-healing addictions, and murderous male violence? A case can be made that
self-loathing displacements; the daily and overall relations between men and wom-
nightly carnage on the streets of the inner cities; en are replete with violence, if the figures
the grim statistics on child and spousal abuse, on domestic homicide and physical abuse
rape, poverty, illiteracy, and suicide-these are are accurate. Explanations of violence
the gruesome manifestations of this historical- range from economic conditions, educa-
ly, sociologically, and psychologically engen- tional levels, family types, neurological
dered tragedy. dysfunctions, to an accepted tradition of
nonverbal conflict resolution. There is
There is a crisis in black male-female re- nothing specifically black or male about
lations; it is rooted in slavery, and man- violence in interpersonal relations. What
ifest in a host of pathological behaviors the idea of black male violence implies is
among all classes of African American men that blackness and maleness are causally
and women. However, Patterson adds, connected to the violence. With the ad-
African American feminists have misun- vent of Comte, Durkheim, Weber, and
derstood the nature of this crisis and offer Marx, such biological determinism should
analyses that blame the truly victim- have disappeared from social studies. But
ized-black males. then, in their emphasis on the evil nature
of white males, some black liberationist
* * 0
and feminist analyses are reminiscent of
Comte's theological and metaphysical
What is the nature of the crisis in black stages of human intellectual develop-
male-female relations? Patterson affirms ment. They constitute a pre-scientific so-
but does not present adequate evidence of ciology.
its existence. What is presented as evi- Patterson's claim that "there has, of
dence of the crisis in gender relations is course, been a great deal of very angry
data on behavioral and decision-making talk among blacks on the subject, but little
processes. However, these data and conversation, and even less light" is ac-
"pathological" behaviors are also cited as curate at one level. Talk of a crisis in black
the cause of the crisis. What Patterson male-female relations is merely that, talk.
The Thomas-Hill hearings certainly do porate and political leaders. For Patterson,
not constitute proof of a critical and pe- the crisis in black male-female relations
culiar condition. Nor is evidence of a gen- is expressed in pathological black male
eral crisis forthcoming in Michele Wal- (and, to a lesser extent, female) behaviors,
lace's black macho and superwoman whose sources are slavery, racism, pov-
myths, Ntozake Shange's colored consid- erty, and a matrifocal family structure that
erations of suicide, or Terry McMillan's creates misogynistic and antimaternal
exhalations. These texts embody imagi- postures in black males. It may be a moot
nary and "true" personal confessions that point whether Patterson's analysis rep-
can be taken as evidence of a crisis in black resents a description of a vicious cycle or
gender relations only if a failed relation- circular reasoning, but there is no doubt
ship with a black woman or man justifies that slavery is the axis of the crisis.
statements about all black women and Patterson introduces slavery as a cen-
black men. Is this talk of a crisis in blacktral part of the explanation of contem-
male-female relations "racist," in its gen-porary inter- and intra-racial relations.

eralizing implication? Relations between black men and women
Precisely because of the absence of a in modern America are soured by the dif-
specification of the nature of the crisis, fering treatments of black female and male
Patterson is led to make contradictory as-slaves. Slavery was a holocaustic assault
sertions. He claims that "Black men ... on the black family and gender relations.
suffer great trauma and unhappiness, andBlack males were reduced to stud roles,
literally die horrible and premature deaths while females were relatively privileged.
as a direct result of this crisis." Elsewhere As bearers of children, mothers, house
in the essay, however, he claims under-slaves, and domestic servants, black fe-
class black male behavior is said to be one males were able to gain valuable cultural
of the origins of the crisis: "The murder-capital. By contrast, the black male slaves
ous aggressiveness and self-destructive vi-were denied roles as fathers, sons, and
olence, the hyperkinetic posturing and vi- providers, and "we continue to live with
olent braggadocio, and the misogynistic abusethe consequences of this differentiated ef-
of women and identification of manliness withfect of slavery on gender roles." Black
impregnation and the abandonment of moth-women are still regarded as less of a threat
ers-behaviors characteristic of a dispro-and, hence, are more acceptable to the
portionate number of under- and lower- white males who dominate the corporate
class black men, is the modernized, 'coolstructure.
pose' version of a brutal behavior complex By implication, it is black males who
going back to slavery." The destructionare the real pack horses of this racist cul-
of black males is also caused by the crisis,ture and society. But the "sociological
whose origins are historico-cultural, notmutilations" inflicted on them by slavery,
free market capitalism, interventionistand their resistance to these mutilations,
economic policies, nor the shambles ofhave played havoc with black male sex-
public education, nor the deindustriali-uality, especially that of lower-class black
zation of the urban economy, nor the in-males, who are the putative descendants
tellectual and moral shortcomings of cor-of the brutalized one-third of the slave
population that was stubbornly nihilistic Wilson's thesis of the declining signifi-
and samboified. Patterson writes: "The cance of race. Patterson's analysis is in the
underclass male is not a Don Juan but a Weberian-Wilsonian tradition of dem-
stud, exactly like his stock-slave ancestor. onstrating deep class cleavages among Af-
His behavior, reproduced in socialization, rican Americans, just as African American
is a collective psychosis, a historical ad- feminist thought identifies a profound
diction to a collective racial trauma....
gender polarization by appropriating the
Little Sambo has become a badass dude." radical feminist tradition. But while Wil-
son, in response to myriad criticisms of
the underclass concept, now disavows the
Patterson's description
concept, Patterson uses it to defend mid-
of black underclass
dle-class black men, as an appeasement of
promiscuity is bellicose black feminists. This appease-
reminiscent of the ment explains Patterson's vitriolic casti-
gation of the promiscuity of the black
ravings of nineteenth-
underclass. Nevertheless, his description
century lynch mobs
of that promiscuity, as expressive of
"predatory attitudes toward women," is
The stock-slave ancestor, the Sambos,
reminiscent of the ravings of nineteenth-
Stagger Lees, and volunteer studs reap- century lynch mobs and scholarly disser-
tations on the natural licentiousness of the
pear as an urban underclass that terrorizes
entire Negro race.
all and sundry. The transition from a slave
lowerclass to an urban underclass marks There are other analytical and logical
a development from a little Sambo to aweaknesses, indeed, palpable contradic-
sexual Rambo. tions in Patterson's intervention into the
Two objections may be made to thisdebate over black male-female relations.

historic line of reasoning. First, in theFirst, the evidence for the proposition that
absence of biographical and ethnographicthe crisis is one of gender and race is ir-
data, no historical continuity can be es-reconcilable, for the description of the cri-
tablished between Sambos and Rambos.sis alludes to a wide range of political
Second, because both the slavery andeconomic conditions, suggesting that the
modern urban experiences are internally crisis is not in black gender relations but
differentiated, there is no "we, black peo-in educational and economic policies.
ple." All black-skinned people are not Second, although Patterson presents mul-
black in terms of experiences, aspirations,tiple causes of the gender crisis, with slav-
values, or behavior. The collective black ery being the ultimate cause, he does not
identity is non-existent. Attempts to con-disclose the operational dynamics of this
struct it face the same subjective-objective historical causation. It is not clear how
demarcation difficulties, which were ex- the slavery experience translates into at-
posed by Max Weber, as Marxist effortstitudes and behavior over the centuries.
to create a "class for itself." The impos-Thus, Patterson's explanation represents
sibility of a cohesive, radical, racial polit-the post hoc, ergo propter hoc fallacy-slav-
ical mobilization is implicit in WilliamJ. ery is an antecedent of all contemporary
black experiences; therefore, it is the cause stroying slave system marriage-prone in
of these experiences. the 1940s and misogamist in the 1980s?
Third, the basic categories of the anal- The factors that lead to a break in slavery's
ysis (namely race, class, and gender) are causation must be presented, or this cau-
not conceptually delineated. However, sation must be abandoned. Patterson's
such a delineation is crucial to the coher- analysis skirts the issue. This omissionjus-
ence of the arguments, especially in light tifies Thomas Sowell and Walter Wil-
of the long-standing controversies over liams' criticisms of the "liberal" and civil
definitions of race. Patterson's analysis ig- rights activists who conveniently pull the
nores aspects of the sociological literature rabbits of slavery and racism out of their
that are pivotal to, and destructive of, the hats to explain black deprivation and ig-
persuasiveness of his arguments. The con- nore the post-1960s government inter-
cepts of race, gender, class, and underclass ventions that are equally culpable in the
are most uncritically used, as if there were destruction of the black family.
a consensus on their theoretical status and Fifth, Patterson charges that racism is
logical viability. still very much alive in American society,
Fourth, Patterson's analysis is replete without attending to its possible influence
with inconsistencies. He asserts that, as a on his own analysis. Some of his descrip-
result of "the sociological mutilations of tions of the sexual attitudes of both lower-
slavery," lower-class blacks possess a "vi- and middle-class blacks as well as refer-
cious desire to impregnate and leave ences to their "sexual aggression against
women." But he also argues: "It takes two women" and "promiscuous sexual and
to bring a child into this world, and it is physical violence" rival nineteenth-cen-
patronizing and sexist to place greater tury KKK and contemporary White Ar-
blame on African-American fathers than yan Resistance pamphlets on the Negro's
on mothers." The institution of marriage sexuality.
among all classes of blacks is said to be Sixth, Patterson's utilization of Oed-
"in serious trouble," as a result of "slav- ipal longings to explain the behavior of
ery's ethnocidal assault on black gender lower-class black youth does not provide
roles." But according to the research of a basis for the revolutionary changes he
Mare and Winship, which is cited by Pat- claims to desire. His neo-Freudianism as-
terson: sumes an incapacitation of persons' rea-
soning abilities. Hence, the deviant be-
haviors
. . in 1940 the proportion of black men, agedof the so-called lower- and un-
derclass
twenty-four to twenty-nine, who were married might have been traced to the
quality
exceeded that of white men in the same of public education they received.
age-
group (59 percent vs. 56 percent). ByInstead,
1985- Patterson depicts the young un-
87 the proportion of married white men had black as a bundle of sexual and
derclass
violent energies caught up in a maelstrom

declined by only four points to 52 percent,
of subterranean
while the figurefor black men hadfallen to psychological forces. In
35 percent. Patterson's analysis, the black underclass
youth is mindless, and this mindlessness
Why are the descendants of a family-de- is traced to a condition beyond his con-
trol-slavery. This fatalistic proposition black male attitudes toward black females.
is necessary to support the premise that Patterson substantiates these criticisms
the legacies of slavery-the pre-natal al- with a wealth of statistics showing the
ienation of the outsider-live on in the comparatively privileged position of black
body politic and black culture. females in education, income, and life ex-
pectancy. Rates of homicide and suicide
Finally, Patterson's analysis fails to ex-
plore, and thereby runs aground on, theamong, especially, young African Amer-
moral-political context and content of ican males far outstrip those of African
American females.
studies of gender, racial, and class expe-
riences. His object of study: ".. . the cri- Having documented that African
sis-ridden problem of gender relations be-American males are burdened with edu-
tween African American men and wom- cational and economic -eprivation and
en" sets the stage for accusations of moral "horrible" physical destruction, Patterson
failures among all African Americans,
failures rooted in their slave past. In this The seismic shock to
sense Patterson's "Blacklash" constitutes
consciousness comes
another turn of the cycle of condemna-
not from slavery, but
tions of the Negro's flawed nature.
racial classification
and black self-
identification
Are black women more oppressed than
black men? African-American feminists concludes that black females are simply
answer in the affirmative. But surely suchmore burdened and that each gender bears
comparisons presuppose the possibility ofdifferent kinds of burdens. This conclu-
quantifying oppression, a quantificationsion does not follow from the data pre-
that rails against the implicitly qualitative sented, but it constitutes a compromise
content of the concept of oppression. that avoids a spiraling exercise in upping
Nevertheless, Patterson validates the the ante of evidence of oppression. As re-
comparison, and demurs: "I think the gards the historical comparative quality
double burden argument while not strict-of black male and female experiences,
ly incorrect, obscures more than it illu-Patterson's conclusions are uncompro-
minates." Patterson admits that this ar- mising. Slavery was less brutalizing for
gument exposes unsavory and disturbing black females. Black male slaves were
attitudes of black men toward black wom- twice victimized. Their sons are thrice
en. However, he claims that it has the victimized by white males, other black
following weaknesses: First, it ignores the males, and black women who, on the au-
black female's responsibility for "high-thority of Michele Wallace, have no re-
risk parenting," and its dislocating socio- spect for black men.
economic and psychological conse- What is the nature of the poison that
quences. Second, it omits certain critical corrodes relations between African Amer-
facts about the black male experience. ican women and men? Patterson's un-
Third, it fails to correlate these facts with critical reference to the responses of Af-
rican American students at Temple Uni- America is a racist white society compels
versity seems to affirm Michele Wallace's a more avid embracing of blackness, even
assertion that black men and women hate as it fails to provide succor. "Black peo-
each other. But why do they not have the ple" are self-trapped in a self-contradic-
desire to defect, to let go of blackness and tory racial worldview. Their rage is bound
black people? Hate cannot be an accurate to be unbounded; they do not discrimi-
description of African American postures nate in their choice of pin-cushions,
toward one other. A more plausible de- which, in all probability, will be other
scription of even the frequently voiced "I black people.
hate niggers, black men, black wom- If anything explains the persistence of
en, .. ." would be frustration, or anger- this entrapment in a self-contradictory ra-
a result of a failure to realize given inter- cial worldview, it is an educational system
ests. Persons who self-classify as black that does not provide the input that would
reach out to their likenesses with ex- facilitate reasoning out of this worldview.
tremely high hopes of harmony and com- In Race and Mixed Race, Naomi Zack of-
patibility, hopes based on a conviction thatfers an estimate that out of some ten thou-
they live in a hostile white world andsand professional philosophers in the
need to be "brothers" and "sisters." In- United States, seventy-five are African
tense frustration and anger follow fromAmericans! The dearth of courses in phi-
the realization that a common blackness losophy and critical thinking in educa-
does not eliminate their educational, re-tional institutions leads to a tolerance of
gional, generational, normative, behav-contradictory beliefs among students,
ioral, and aspirational differences. In sit-doctoral candidates, and the lay public.
uations of conflicting interests, "blackThis is expressed in particular inconsis-
tencies-"I wouldn't go out with a per-
people" will be more angry at other "black
people" than they would be at "white son of another race," coupled with op-
people," precisely because of their expec-position to racial discrimination; decla-
tation of black harmony. rations such as, "I love my black men,"
The individualism, utilitarianism, in-side by side with, "niggers ain't worth
strumentalism, and pragmatism that areshit;" valorization of "light skin," "fine
features," and "good hair" and hostility
required for success in an urban capitalist
environment-oh, I miss the South- toward the people whose acts led to that
nullify blackness as a foundation for a har- "multiraciality." Educational input more
mony of interests. The seismic shock torooted in the humanities could do much
consciousness comes not from slavery, asto resolve these patterns of "cognitive dis-
Patterson states, but racial classificationsonance." In outlining a remedy for the
and black self-identification. Nor do blackcrisis, Patterson does opt for an education
men and women hate one another. Rath- grounded in historical understanding.
er, their blackness is nonfunctional andSuch understanding cannot be reached,
dysfunctional. It is useless in the urban rathowever, without knowledge of philos-
race, the tangle of commercialized am- ophies of history and the relationship
bitions, blocked social mobility, labor among logic, ethics, epistemology, and
competition, financial anxieties, and ma- aesthetics.
terial deprivation. Yet, the conviction that Black male-female relations must be
analyzed through philosophical-educa- rate. Consider the assertion that blacks are
tional lenses. An analysis that links these poor. Is this all, or some? Unless black
relations to the slave past must suffer from millionaires are poor, "all" has to be re-
particular logical deficiencies. It cannot duced to "some." This reformulation
specify the reasons for the persistence of constitutes a class differentiation. But then,
the irrational self-destructive behaviors it may be claimed that black women are
among lower- and middle-class blacks, in greater poverty than black men so that
male and female, without letting go of gender differentiation must also be intro-
the past. As Patterson indicates, the black duced. Once class and gender are intro-
family may be providing the mechanisms
of transmission and retention of slavery's The alleged crisis in
brutalizing attitudinal and cultural lega- black female-male
cies. However, insofar as this family
relations is a crisis of
structure is itself a product of slavery, in-
sofar as destructive cultural traditions re- racial classification
main in force, generation after genera-
tion, it must be concluded that formal duced, the idea of black poverty loses its
education is not performing its role as a racial flavor. The racial description, then,
cultivator of reasoning skills and reason- is nominal; it is retained because of a hid-
ableness. It is the philosophical quality of den thesis that race is of some significance
schooling in America that explains the in American society.
black and the white refusal, or inability, Despite their irrelevance and even hin-
to resist and transcend the psychological, drance to conclusive social studies, racial
ideological, and sociological effects of qualifications of social relations and con-
slavery, especially racial classification. ditions are not abandoned. Yet they self-
"Blacklash" falls squarely within the tra- destruct. For example, Patterson's claim
dition of tolerance of an absurd system of that all black gender relations are poi-
racial classification. soned must be reformulated as some black
In Race and Mixed Race, Naomi Zack gender relations are vitiated. Otherwise,
writes of this classification: Patterson's analysis itself, coming from a
self-characterized black male, could be ac-
... black and white racial designations are cused of having biases whose source lies
themselves racist because the concept of race in his poisoned gender relations.
does not have an adequate scientific basis. If It can be safely predicted that very few,
racial designations are racist, then people ought if any, African American feminists will be
not to be identified in the thirdperson as mem- persuaded by Patterson's arguments. Out-
bers of races. And if people ought not to be raged voices should swell the pages of
identified as members of races, then individuals Transition's Symposium. In the process,
in the first person ought not to have racial more and burdensome statistics will be
identities. invoked to demonstrate that black wom-
en are indeed, maybe not twice, or thrice,

Racial classification is "racist." Hence, any but certainly unevenly burdened. Why is
analysis of black experiences can also be Patterson so silent, for example, on the
deemed "racist" or empirically inaccu- institution of rape that was built into slav-
ery, house slavery, share-cropping, and black women can act out this reminder
domestic labor? Why is the slave's giving by establishing color- and gender-blind
birth and rearing children so humanizing relations with other human beings.
and life-affirming, despite her three sets
of roles and duties-father, mother, and
slave laborer? Surely Patterson should be
THE CRISIS OF BLACK
more empathic about the trials, tribula-
MASCULINITY
tions, and trauma of professional black
women, as they strive to cope with un-
Kenneth S. Tollett, Sr.
faithful husbands, search in vain for in-
tellectually and emotionally compatible Orlando Patterson's "Blacklash" is a bril-
soul-mates, and are forced to deal with liant and forthright essay in the sociology
the envy, jealousy, and anger of less suc- of culture; Patterson has already secured
cessful black men? Even if the lower-class for himself a place in the pantheon of
black female is a willing participant in the great twentieth-century black sociolo-
act that produces offspring, it is the height gists, including W.E.B. Du Bois, E.
of misogyny to claim that she shares some Franklin Frazier, Nathan Hare, and Wil-
responsibility for the runaway father's liam Julius Wilson. While his discussion
abominable cruelty to both her and his of the Thomas-Hill hearings and his ob-
child. Thus, in a curious twist, Patterson's servation that black feminists too often
"Blacklash" could result in ". . . a great confuse and confound gender issues with
deal of very angry talk among blacks on women's issues are perspicacious, I am
the subject, but little conversation, and most impressed by his call to "squarely"
even less light," unless gender and race confront the internal problems of blacks.
are recognized as "loose cannons." In responding to his essay, I should like
The alleged crisis in black female-male to squarely face the problems confronting
relations is a crisis of racial classification. blacks, both internal and external, in the
It is, then, a conceptual crisis, the result arena of gender relations. The following
of a premature and unjustified racial des- propositions are intended to illuminate
ignation of persons and their relations. those problems.
This designation, which is part of an over-
all racial theory of history, has no logical I. Unless one wants to maintain that black
substance. The solution to the crisis in males are inherently inferior-genetically, be-
black male-female relations is to recog-
haviorally, and/or educationally-negative or
nize that there is no such crisis, that hu-
destructive externalfactors must be impacting
man beings are "coloring," "gendering"
them more severely than black women,for black
and "culturing" themselves to destruc-

women are maintaining orgainingground ed-
tion. Black, white, gay, woman, and Jew
ucationally, while black males are hardly pro-
are but classifications, and as Peter Berger
gressing educationally and, even, losingground
reminded those invited to sociology, it inis life expectancy.
an assault on the sociological tradition to These differences between the circum-
treat classifications as "realities." The hu- stances and experiences of black males and
man beings classified as black men and

black females are not likely to be mere
happenstance. Patterson clearly recogniz- on the problems of black men in America
es this; hence his questioning of the dou- and to lay the groundwork for an orga-
ble-burden claim of black women. His- nization dedicated to research and advo-
torically, black males have been not onlycacy work for black men," Isabel Wilk-
feared, but also emasculated. Only rarelyerson poignantly reported that a discus-
sion which "started out addressing socio-
have they been permitted to play the tra-
ditional roles expected of males in theeconomic problems often turned into
social order in the United States. personal testimonies, as participants shared
Two major traditional masculine roles stories of the countless small insults that
are providing for and protecting the come with being black men in largely
members of their households. The dou- white America." Arthur Fletcher, the
ble-digit unemployment rates of black Chairman of the United States Civil
males for most of the last two decades Rights Commission, reported that he,
reflect the special difficulties black meneven in his 60s, after forty years of solid
achievement, continued to be dismissed
face in serving as both providers and pro-
tectors. Deprived of those roles, blackand disrespected at mainstream profes-
sional conferences on account of race.
males have frequently behaved in asocial,
if not pathological, ways. The feminist Blacks, especially males, are still not
movement's effort to redefine male rolesconsidered full members of the social
(sometimes even the human) community.

has hardly alleviated this problem, or the
issue of powerlessness among black men;Patterson is correct, I think, in character-
indeed, it has confused, stultified, and al-
izing the civil rights movement as a strug-
ienated them. gle for the recognition of blacks as con-
In all the discussion of black male pa-stituent members of their communities. I
thology and "underclass" behavior, few
cannot agree, however, that we have been
"mightily successful" in obtaining such
bother to note that the most important
way to reverse these developments is to
recognition, especially black males.
achieve full employment for black males. While black women have of course
This is also the key to the reconstruction

been similarly disenfranchised, it is true,
of the black family, and the socio-eco-as Patterson notes, that whites do not per-
nomic re-integration of the black com-ceive black women as posing the same
munity. The high incidence of singlekind of threat to whites as black men.
motherhood and the non- or low mar- Thus whites are not as uncomfortable in
riageability of many black males are in-

the workplace with the presence of black
timately related, and both conditions willwomen as they are with the presence of
only change by dealing with the blackblack men-especially upwardly mobile
male's plight sensitively, constructively,aggressive black males. A recent New York
and firmly. Times article reported that black women
Unfortunately, black males are still not earn, on the average, more than black men
often taken seriously. At a national con- and as much as white women. It must be
ference in Kansas City, Missouri, of some added that many black women have bol-
two-hundred scholars, ministers, and stered their positions by identifying with
community workers "to exchange ideas feminism, constructing Sisterhood against
both black and white males: a strategy Freud altered his theory "that his female
which affects the former more grievously, patients, who came from some of Eu-
as black males remain extremely vulner- rope's finest families, had been sexually
able vis-a-vis their white male counter- abused as children, usually by their fathers
parts. or trusted older men." Thomas, accord-
ing to the new dispensation, is party to a
II. Male bashing-of both whites and blacks-
conspiracy of privileged white males to
should be modulated to de-escalate the destruc-
abuse the children of the "finest families."
tive tensions between the genders.
What terrible fantasies black males in-
I agree with Dr. Alvin F. Poussaint,
duce in the heated oppressed brains of
the author of "Enough Already! Stop the
whites.
Male-Bashing and Infighting," in the
What is of grave concern is not simply
pages of Ebony. Dr. Poussaint's article is
that some blacks pander to feminists by
headnoted with the words: "Black men
joining in the trashing of Thomas and his
and black women must learn to respect
reputation, but that they have helped den-
each other in order to save the endangered
igrate professional black males in general,
black family." Furthermore, some pro-
by making a blackJustice on the Supreme
gressive black writers show signs of sub-
Court an eponym for sexual harassment!
mergence in the white world of radical
It is sad that the "sublime artistry" of
gynecentrism or feminism. Feminist ad-
Toni Morrison did not prevent her (in
herents frequently and ritualistically bash
Race-ingJustice, En-gendering Power, a col-
males, pandering to female jingoist in-
lection of essays on the hearings she ed-
terests. This has been most clear in the
ited) from introducing and setting the tone
"critical" responses to the Thomas-Hill
of the book and most of its essays by fo-
controversy, which have, with rare ex-
cusing upon references to Thomas's
"laughs" and "weight lifting," and upon
The trashing of "the candidate's body [coming] violently
Clarence Thomas is into view" and President Bush inviting
"this black man into his bedroom ... to
part and parcel of the
make Thomas feel at home."
trashing of men in
general, and Freud in
particular III. The Thomas-Hill controversy was a mem-
orable story or event in which a prominent
conservative black male was depicted as a de-
ceptions, been exclusively critical ofJustice
Clarence Thomas. praved demon.
The trashing of Thomas is part and The Thomas-Hill story would have
had but two memorable meanings, had
parcel of the trashing of men in general,
and Freud in particular. "The OedipusThomas not been confirmed by the Sen-
complex was born, " Peter R. Bregginate-a fact which Jane Mayer and Jill
writes, in a special issue of Tikkun onAbramson, the authors of StrangeJustice:
"Sexuality After Thomas-Hill," "underThe Selling of Clarence Thomas (1994), wish
... concerted professional pressure."to undo:
(1) that another black woman brought Moreover, some feminists insist upon
down another black man (2) because, ap- engaging males in serious combat but be-
parently, another black man was sexually come indignant if a male should fight back,
out of control. or refrain from treating them as fragile
This is already an all-too-familiar nar- magnolia blossoms. Anita Faye Hill's
rative: Mayor Marion Barry entrapped by femininity did not silence Senator Specter
"Rasheeda" Moore after the Feds enticed at the Senate Confirmation Hearings of
her into exploiting his weakness for drugs Justice Clarence Thomas. Specter treated
and women; Wilt-the-Stilt ChamberlainAnita Faye Hill not as a helpless Southern
belle but as a worthy law-professor ad-
Liberal or progressive versary.

Many pandering blacks seem oblivious
intellectuals, both to the fact that radical feminist interests
black and white, or prejudices sometimes project phallo-
appear to be under the phobia, pedophobia, and ecophobia: that
undue influence of feminists may be, in Sally Quinn's phras-
feminists ing, "anti-male, anti-children, and anti-

family."
Nevertheless, the critical considera-
claiming to have had 20,000 women; Ear-
tion in this domain is to identify with
vin "Magic" Johnson admitting that he's
blacks in general rather than with oneself
HIV-positive, probably because of sexual
or immediate associates, be they black or
promiscuity; Michael Tyson convicted white.
of Who is pro-black may be debated,
rape because a black beauty pageant con- but most would agree that identifying with
testant visited his room at two o'clock inthe needs, interests, and rights of blacks
the morning for a nice get-to-know-you

is an indicator. (This means some white
discourse, to say nothing about the pos-
writers may be just as capable of being
sibility of some kind of interaction or oth-
pro-black as black writers.) Regardless, it
er-course; O.J. Simpson, who "was ajeal-
is to some extent a question of profes-
ous, possessive, abusive husband," has been
sionalism, and of distinguishing personal
charged with the brutal butchery murder
interest and perception from group inter-
of his ex-wife Nicole Simpson and her
est and perception.
"companion," Ronald Goldman; Illinois The problem of sensitivity and con-
Congressman Melvin Reynolds indicted
cern for the plight of black males is a
complicating consideration in this anal-
on twenty counts, including statutory rape
(having sex with an underage campaign
ysis. The submergence of blacks in the
worker), seeking pornographic pictures
white world may be as relevant in gender
of a minor, and tampering with the in-
analysis as in racial analysis. In other
vestigation; and Dr. Benjamin Chavis
words, some females may have a misan-
ousted by the Board of Directors of the
dric perspective on males whether they
NAACP because he used their "funds to are black or white.
secretly pay a former aide who had ac- However, black males' fixation upon
cused him of sexual harassment." white females may explain why progres-
sive black women would buy into radical course upon social constructionism,
gynecocentrism or feminism more than knowledge, power, and domination, the
some may want to recognize. The result most important passage in her review pre-
is that black women's rejection by black cedes the quotations above. She wrote:
men for white women paradoxically es-
tranges them from their men and causes anyone who recognizes complexities in the
them to embrace the ideology of those [Thomas-Hill] affair is immediately con-
who are major sources of their estrange- signed to pariahdom. It is considered benighted
ment. This probably has more to do with to criticize the mangled way in which the hear-
some highly educated black women op- ings were conducted, or to question whether
posing Clarence Thomas than they would Thomas's actions, even if he did say nasty
like to admit publicly. Nevertheless, as things aboutpubic hair and Long Dong Silver,
Nathan andJulia Hare have pointedly ob- amounted to sexual harassment in the absence
served, black nationalist women tended of any evidence that Hill was ever entrapped,
to side with Thomas's white wife, as threatened, compelled, cajoled or coerced to do,
against the National Organization of or not to do, anything.

Women, which fiercely opposed Justice
Thomas' confirmation. Sadly, ideological disagreement with
Liberal or progressive intellectuals, Justice Clarence Thomas has caused too
both black and white, appear to be under many liberals and progressives, including
the undue influence of feminists. Power blacks, to try to destroy him.
relationships are a driving force in much
of feminist analysis and critiques of the
political and social situation in the United
"CATFISH!"
States. As Derrick Bell has observed,
however, feminist critiques of "power re-
lations" must first confront the continu- or, Uncle Willie and the badass poet on "black
ing powerlessness of black males. male ideology"
Jean Bethke Elshtain, writing in The

Cecil Brown
New Republic, noted that the hearings
contributed to a "mounting hysteria" Place: Berkeley Hills
which "trivialize[d] the seriousness of Setting: The black scholar/poet is
sexual harassment and serve[d] to deepen reading the journal Transition. There is a
racial codes about black males." "The ten- knock at the door.
dency to portray black men as sexually Badass Poet [answering the door]: Un-
rapacious, with a propensity to rape, " she cle Willie!
argued, is "an unsavory theme in many Uncle Willie: Whew! Those some
(white) feminist tracts." The people who long-ass steps, nephew! Why you have to
are politically correct on questions of gen- live so far up the hill. It was 1979 the last
der and power are "complicit in the con- time I came to visit, and I ain't the young
struction of the black male as the para- dude I use to be.
digmatic sexual suspect." Badass Poet: But the view is worth
However, apart from Elshtain's dis- it, don't you think?
Uncle Willie: Lemme catch my fact, Uncle Willie-I can speak plainly
breath! [catches breath, and looks around] A to you-it was a bit too well-written.
view is a view. I saw one the last time I Uncle Willie: What was it 'bout, son?
was visiting you. This'n looks the same.If you can 'splain it to Uncle Willie, you
In fact, that's the same red bridge! Yeah,
can 'splain it to anybody.
and over there is the island. Badass Poet: I suppose you're right
Badass Poet: The Golden Gate on that count. What was it about? Well,
Bridge and Treasure Island. Yes, well.
he claims that the "internal racial agenda
Uncle Willie, how're the folksis back in
the crisis-ridden problem of gender re-
Carolina? lations between African American men
Uncle Willie: Everybody's fine. But and women." I agree that this is a sig-
we is real worried about you. nificant issue. I agree that "black men have
Badass Poet: But why? as much at stake as black women in
Uncle Willie: Well, to come right understanding, and resolving, the terrible
out with it, son, people said that you was crisis in their relations." Mr. Patterson
going crazy out here in California. Said thinks that the black woman's "double
you was reading too many books. [Uncle burden argument" is unfounded. I agree
Willie sees the copy of Transition lying on with this, too. I agree with his conclu-
the desk] What's this here, son? sions about the need for black men to join
Badass Poet: Oh, that's a literary in the discussion of the gender question.
journal. Uncle Willie: If you agree with him,
Uncle Willie: What you doin'? why you wasting yo' time writing him
Reading it? back?
Badass Poet: Yes, I'm reading an ar- Badass Poet: I agree with his con-
ticle by Orlando Patterson on the Black clusions, but I have problems with his
Female Gender Gap. premises. I do not agree with his claim
Uncle Willie: The what gap? Son, that the cause of this problem of com-
did you say Gap? Woman's Gap! Now munication between black men and black
look here boy, don't be reading no por- women is due to the black man's "lower
nography! class status," which brings with it "emo-

Badass Poet: No, Uncle Willie, this tionally and socially brutalizing and phys-
is far more serious than pornography. This ically self-destructive" behavior.
is literary criticism. On the one hand, he claims that it is
Uncle Willie: It don't mess you up wrong and "patronizing and sexist to place
to read about it? [signifying] What kind of greater blame on African American fa-
gaps you talking about? thers than on mothers." Yet on the other,
Badass Poet: I'm doing more than he traces the problem between the black
reading. I am responding to the article, man and the black woman to the black
which is more fun than reading it. man's behavior. There is nothing, inci-
Uncle Willie: You 'sponding to that dentally, about the black woman's behav-
trash? ior.
Badass Poet: Uncle Willie, this is It is the "posturing, pathological nar-

not trash. This article is well-written. In cissism of 'cool pose' masculinity with its
predatory, antimaternal sexuality, self- "Patterson claims that the 'dozens' and
healing addiction, and murderous, self- the 'toasts' are negative, misogyny. I claim
loathing displacements," that caused the the opposite. Their intent is moral. By
disarray in the black family, neighbor- accusing his opponent of such charges as
hood, and community values. physical violence, homosexuality, incest,
Patterson's evidence for the destruc- the speaker of the toasts is saying, 'that's
tive behavior of black men, Uncle Willie, deviant behavior for our group; you are
is the very verbal culture that black men a deviant, and I am the norm.' Patterson
have used for ages to survive in America. quotesJohn Dollard as his source on black
Uncle Willie: What's that? culture, who, to his credit, published the
first account of the dozens, "The Dozens
Badass Poet: Playing the dozens and
mother-rhyming! Dialect of Insult"-back in 1939! Dol-
Uncle Willie: Mother-rhyming!

lard's view never includes any positive
Lord a'mercy! values or assessments. For example, he
Badass Poet: Who would have misinterprets the dozens as a negative ex-
thought! I mean, if it wasn't for our of blacks in a confused state of
pression
bewilderment
mother-rhyming, we wouldn't have sur- and self-hatred.
"'Sexand
vived the brutality of the white man, themes,' he wrote, 'are by far
now a black man comes along and tries common and they frequently
the most
relate who
to show us that we are degenerates to the female relatives of the chal-
hate our own mothers! And he does it lenged person.' He then gives an exam-
ple:
without a smirk of humor; presumably,
all these readers are taken in too. I bet
some of them really think that these kids Your ma behind

doing the dozens really get off by hating Is like a rumble seat
their mothers! It hangfrom her back
Uncle Willie: You think he is get- Down to herfeet.
ting money to write this?
Badass Poet: No, he's probably hon- "Dollard (and Patterson) couldn't see
orable, but just as we thought it was safe
the positive qualities in this as a particular
type of ritual invective. He couldn't see
to go back to mother-rhyming after Rog-
er Abrahams (Deep Down in the ungle) and as a form which is found all over the
this
oral cultures, both past and present. Dol-

Bruce Jackson (Get Your Ass in the Water
and Swim Like Me .. .) did a number on
lard was so offended by the reference to
us, here comes one of our own! It reminds
the 'son' copulating with his 'mother' he
couldn't see straight. He couldn't see the
me of an English professor who hates rap
cleverness, the wit, and the brilliant rhet-
music, but his own son is running around
tryin' to imitate rappers! oric the young boy-poet employed in de-
Uncle Willie: So what you gonna
feating his opponent. By comparing his
do? Refute him? opponent's mother to a rumble seat, the
Badass Poet: Exactly. Let me read
poet expects to win points from his au-
dience-there is always an audience, or
you what I have written so far: (Badass
poet readsfrom manuscript) why perform?-for his talent. Not only
was the rhyme well-received at the time Indians! They have done a lot of good
it was performed against a particular op- things for us.
ponent; i.e., not only is it vivid and im- Uncle Willie: They have? Like what?
mediate, but the speaker throws in a bit Badass Poet: Why, if it weren't for
of self-dating history. The rumble seat West Indians, who would run our African
refers back to an age that we can no longer American Studies departments? Or ex-
experience. The boy-poet is in training, plain our behavior to white people? And
but he already has grasped the essential they have such wonderful accents! Have
technique of African American poetry: al- you ever noticed how impressed whites
ways use a local reference if you want are when West Indians speak?
your satire to bite hard. This local item, But let me get back to my main point,
the rumble seat, not only got applause which is this: when it comes to discus-
from his audience, but still makes us smile. sions of mother-rhyming and verbal con-
"Dollard misses the significance of the tests like the dozens, we are better off
Dozens. He makes an interesting obser- taking them out of the arena of English
vation about repression. The Dozens professors, sociologists, and the over-
prove, he claims, that blacks are just as blown culture critics.
normal as whites. 'Since Negroes repress Uncle Willie: And put it in whose
the same tendencies (taboos on incestuous hands?
behavior, homosexuality, adulterous ac- Badass Poet: Put it in the hands of
tivities) as do whites it is obvious that they the people who are trained to look at cul-
are governed by the same moral imper- tures from many other different views!
atives as whites are.' (Thanks for that, Into the hands of the black anthropolo-
Mistah Dollard, suh.) Then he says, 'Their gists. Uncle Willie, let me put it this way.
family loyalties show the marks of being If a white woman went into the middle
fashioned by the same repressive forces. of the African jungle, in Rwanda, and,
The conclusion could not be otherwise surrounded by gorillas, she set out to live
with them and write about them? Would
since they are fellow participants in our
Western European cultural heritage.' In you not call her brave?
other words, if blacks are normal in their Uncle Willie: I sho' would.
repression, this is because they are in the Badass Poet: Now back in the Unit-
West. Couldn't it also be because they are
ed States, a white man goes into the ghet-
Africans, and Africans have standards of
to to study black verbal behavior, and the
normalcy too? first little black boy that says "mother-
"But Patterson misses this as well. fucker" drops the sucker to his knees. You
Dollard may have as his excuse that he
wouldn't call him brave, would you? Naw,
was white, but what could Orlando Pat-
didn't think so. "Motherfucker," he calls
terson's be? Maybe that he is from the
out, "Eureka! I have discovered the key
West Indies." (Badass Poet stops reading.)to the black man's psyche!" He then starts
Uncle Willie: West Indian! A psychoanalyzing everything about black
Geecher? Don't they eat monkeys? men.
Badass Poet: No, Uncle Willie! We This is what happens when Abrahams
will not take such uncouth swipes at West and Bruce Jackson heard the "Dozens
They were the first socio-psychologists to His discussion is supposed to show that
put that bad man "Stagolee" on a couch. this verbal activity is an example of the
They declared such heros of the dozens destructive nature of black male culture.
as "sociopaths." Abrahams turned to the "In fact, Patterson's argument is noth-

gang-leader as an analogue to this self- ing more than the old Frazier/Herskovitz
projection while Jackson turned to the debate in new guise. Like E. Franklin Fra-
pimp. Now Mr. Patterson has joined the zier and other scholars of the 'culture of
ranks of these tired observers of black men poverty' school, Patterson believes that
the middle passage was so brutal that it
robbed the enslaved black African of his
In all oral cultures, ability to survive. By assuming the prem-
past and present, ise that blacks brought nothing to Amer-
ica culturally, Patterson can make the
verbal competition is a
claim that the so-called culture of the con-
highly valued cultural temporary ghetto is a twisted version of
tradition what blacks pieced together on the slave
plantation. This is why he turns poetic
by declaring he has a new insight. "Theand exclaims that the Don Juan (of the
underclass male is not a Don Juan," heghetto) who gives black women all their
announces, "but a stud, exactly like hisbabies and who is abusive to them is really
stock-slave ancestor. Little Sambo has be- a plantation stud!
come badass dude." Where have we heard "What is particularly glaring in the
this before?! socio-psychologists' analysis is their dis-
Note, Uncle Willie, how Professor missal of the African culture as an influ-
Patterson is trying to be hip! Why the ence on African American male ideology
next thing you know, he'll be writing and behavior.
poems! He has the same notions of psy- "Herskovitz, an anthropologist, took

choanalyzing the black male as Abrahams the opposite approach to black behavior.
did when he claimed that "the bad nig- He hypothesized that blacks had coping
ger" was a descendant of Brer Rabbit, the skills that survived the middle passage.
trickster. Let me read to you again. (reads) Herskovitz identified these features as
"The reason that these scholars can't having African origins by comparing their
see black male culture in a comparativevariants in every place to which the slave
and historical context is that they aretrade took slaves: South America, the Ca-
reading themselves into their works. They ribbean, and North America.
are trying to make a psychological dis- "The difference between these two di-
tinction between themselves and the ametrically opposed schools of thought is
blacks, who are their subjects. Patterson
crucial. Blacks who agree with Patterson
refers to them as the "lower class" black
accept the premise that black behavior is
males. pathological, that it is derived not only
"His discussion of the Dozens is not from poverty, but from a psychological
to show verbal abuse as a poetic contest,
and cultural deprivation that results in vi-
a form which is a part of all oral cultures.olence. Implicit in this premise is the no-
tion that if you change this "bad behav- municate and transmit cultural symbols
ior" you can change the situation in the and attitudes of manhood.
inner-city. "Furthermore, Patterson claims that

"Mr. Patterson's article is filled with he knows of 'no other cultural tradition
metaphors and images of violence and dis- outside of the black lower class where the
integration. 'Black men reacted in two trope "mother fucker" is so inscribed.'

ways to the sociological mutilation of Well, that just shows how narrow his
slavery.' What is the basis of this 'muti- knowledge of oral culture is. Professor
lation'? In one page, we encounter 'self- Alan Dundes has shown that this practice
loathing,' 'depression,' 'sexuality of the started in Africa among the West Afri-
lower-class blacks,' 'extreme sexist view,' cans, the Kafirs, and the South Africans.
and 'a glorification of their pathological, According to Dundes, 'boys of the same
hip-hop sexuality.' age tease one another by well known
"This romantic image of the black man methods. One boy says to another, "Your
as a deranged, over-sexed, pathological mother is an ugly old thing". .. The great
stud, is summed up as the 'black male insults center around speaking evil of the
dominance ideology.' mother and grandmother.' Like the Bantu
people, these Africans practice a form of
The Hill-Thomas verbal dueling that accuses the opponent
of incest.
debates demonstrated
"Patterson is also wrong about Sta-
that we are in a new
golee. He claims that the 'bottom third
era of blackface (of society) was the historical source of
minstrels the Stagger Lees and other heartless brutes
of lower-class lore, and the nihilistic un-
derclass
"I think the example of Herskovitz is who have always plagued ordi-
instructive, here. Herskovitz assumednary, thatlaw-abiding black folk.'
the verbal forms of black behavior were "Patterson traces every single charac-
creative, traditional, transformative, and ter in African American culture back to
culturally uplifting. Following his meth- the plantation, where he writes about 'de-
od, let us look at the dozens in a larger feated Sambos,' and 'incorrigible bad nig-
comparative context. gers,' but during this historical period
"In all oral cultures, past and present- there were not two classes of black people.
and not just the black American-verbal There were slaves and freed blacks. If you
competition is a highly valued cultural think that Patterson couldn't stomach
tradition. The audience, for example, is 'motherfucker,' look how he gags on the
essential to playing the dozens. As Dol- 'bad nigger,' who is seen as terrorizing
lard observes, 'the crowd, anxious for a 'ordinary black folk.' No black folk in the
battle, eggs the participants on and finally South were 'ordinary,' given the white
ridicules them into having a fight.' Not violence against them, and not all 'bad
only does Patterson ignore the impor- niggers' were 'bad' to anybody but whites.
tance of oral culture, he doesn't see how Walter Benjamin believed that a destruc-
the members use contests as a way to com- tive character is a condition of a creative
personality; Stagolee became for many Patterson brags about-slavery made stu-
black men a genuine symbol of manhood. dents of us all, Orlando-denigrate black
"Stagolee was the symbol of black men masculinity, they indulge in the same
who knew that in order to survive psy- stereotyping that the whites who played
chologically, they had to protect their self- black-face minstrels did. In fact, what the
respect and reputation. Although Stago- Anita Hill and Clarence Thomas debates
lee started with a black man in 1895, the demonstrated is that we are in a new era
legend has evolved from a ballad to a sym- of blackface minstrels.
bol of black male cultural identity. "Patterson is impressed that in the

"The whole discussion of black male Thomas-Hill hearings, 'The most inti-
behavior should be taken away from these
mate problems of white men and women,
social scientists, who are too emotionalhow they conduct their gender relations
and defensive to see the forest for the in and out of the work place, could now
trees. If we are going to look at the ques-be seen in terms of people who happen
tion of gender relations we must considerto be African American.'
these cultural symbols and practices not "Even when blacks couldn't play those
as a destructive force on black women but roles, the white man put on black paint
as a symbol of black male ideology with

and a dress and got up on stage and acted
its own traditions and distinct origins. out their problems. It has been observed
"Anthropologists have been able to putby many that when whites want to talk
this 'macho' pride into its cultural con-to each other about their most 'intimate'
text. Stanley Brandes wrote a study onthemes, they turn to black language.
Weren't white women called the 'niggers
male ideology in the Spanish culture, Met-
of the world,' and when whites want to
aphors of Masculinity: Sex and Status in An-
dalusian Folklore. In Greek society, Mi-
express joy do they not give high fives?
chael Herzfeld in The Poetics of Manhood: "'Why has the coon song become so
Contest and Identity in a Cretan Mountainrepresentative of our popular music?' a
white critic, Isaac Goldberg (the author
Village, shows the "poetics" of the man-
hood rituals, which include stealing eachof a brilliant book, Tin Pan Alley) once
asked. 'The Negro is the symbol of our
other's sheep, a violent crime in their so-
ciety. uninhibited expression,' he answered, 'of
"Black male ideology should be stud- our uninhibited action. He is our cathar-
ied with the same kind of care and com- sis. He is the disguise behind which we
parisons as other highly oral societies. As may, for a releasing moment, rejoin that
it is, the socio-psychologists like Patter- part of ourselves which we have sacrificed
son will first assume that blacks are nat- to civilization.'
urally 'misogynist,' that they naturally "Now there is a new minstrelsy, in

hate their women. But such a study has which blacks appear as themselves to help
to be made by anthropologists, and not white people dramatize their problems,
by these English professors, sociologists, which have been misconstrued as our
and historians moonlighting as anthro- problems. This stereotype is the 'new black
pologists. Sambo.' The new black Sambo is anti-
"When such 'students of slavery' as Semitic, anti-woman, and anti-gay. When
major foundations and the media want to Uncle Willie (rising): Son, I forgot!
manipulate the public's image of the black Aunt Betty sent you some catfish, and I
man they give assistance to scholars who left it in the car! I got to go get it!
will write articles proving that black men Badass Poet: Okay, okay! Catfish?
are pathologically against gays, Jews, and Uncle Willie: Come on, son. Let's
black women. Unfortunately, Patterson's get those motherfuckers 'fore they spoil.
article falls into the anti-black woman cat- Badass Poet: Uncle Willie, are you
egory." (He finishes and sets the manuscript going to use that term after I have just
down) Well, what do you think, Uncle read to you what it means?
Willie? . . . Uncle Willie? Uncle Willie: Boy, that's my culture.
Uncle Willie: (waking up) That was(He turns and winks at Badass Poet) And
tellin' em! yours and Patterson's too!
Badass Poet: You really think so? Badass Poet: (He leaves the Transition
Uncle, I really value the opinion of ig-
magazine lying on the table and rushes out.)
Catfish! Catfish!
norant country people like you. It comes
straight from the heart.

The Crisis For African American Gender Relations

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The Crisis For African American Gender Relations

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Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University

The Crisis of African American Gender Relations

"As long as African Americans remained

Hill controversy. Patterson describes the

egated the gender crisis in black relations

institutionalized system of male domi-

Patterson's essay is compassion. In actuality, he appropriates

When I describe this piece as anti-fem-

terson's essay. The black male publishers

would collectively oppose conventional

African American it mean for black gender relations, if black

lations would constructively improve in oppression remained intact in black

many rhetorical gestures that highlight

courageously acknowledges that white

I no longer see black women, on the assumption that they are

of female gender need to be thought in

of slavery community. I mean for every father who

100 TRANSITION ISSUE 66

As it happens, white out-of-wedlock

cannot be ascribed to slavery or discrim-women, if they find themselves pregnant,

GENDER RELATIONS 101

Households Headed by Women Percentage of Births

Black White Ratio

102 TRANSITION ISSUE 66

Women's Share of Percentage of Positions

Black White Among Among

have a higher ratio is that black men hit

(Per 100,000 in each racial group)

lives in private instead of on the streets. Black White Ratio

GENDER RELATIONS 103

made with some care. Yet it is now ap-

104 TRANSITION ISSUE 66

desire to impregnate women-even manyalties for reckless procreation, and plunged

GENDER RELATIONS 105

stigma of illegitimacy or the economic

106 TRANSITION ISSUE 66

much "Afro-centric mumbo-jumbo." But

GENDER RELATIONS 107

ofyears of societal hostility and, in the process, anti-social behavior.

In addition, long-established stabilizing The public's responses to these "black papers"

108 TRANSITION ISSUE 66

behavior are far more help.

GENDER RELATIONS 109

110 TRANSITION ISSUE 66

Black women seeking men do white females; hence they are

African American females as compared to

GENDER RELATIONS 111

112 TRANSITION ISSUE 66

GENDER RELATIONS 113

114 TRANSITION ISSUE 66

Ishmael Reed chael Lerner and Seymour Lipset argue

GENDER RELATIONS 115

116 TRANSITION ISSUE 66

propagandized, a failure that influences 35 percent of Asian Americans are wel-

this is the into African After

up a far smaller percentage of the poor Patterson's arguments

Times hypocritically chastised politicians "paradigm" of race

GENDER RELATIONS 117

118 TRANSITION ISSUE 66

Americans supply retailers in black neigh- for poor women at all?)

people (a recent poll revealed that Clar-

GENDER RELATIONS 119

(During this meeting, Anita Hill deliv- community).