152 Jobnnella E. Butler tion would have it, That question asked who and what values wor censed and identified a6 American ce For a brief but comprehensive discussion of the role of African Ameri. Sep sais in teaching Beco ae ‘Tejumola Olaniyan, “The Role of ean Amen Si es in Faglish Departments Now," Callao, vol 17, 10. J. J, Fossett and J. A. Tucker, eds Race Consciousness: Aj American Studies for the New Contry (New York: New You Uday freien entury (New York: New York University 11, See Johnnelia E. Butler, “Transforming the Curriculum: Teachin About Women of Colog” in James A. Banks and Chery A. MeGee Berke cds, Multicultural Education: Issues and Perspectives (Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1997), pp. 171-190. The Future of Black Studies: Political Communities and the “Talented Tenth” Joy James “the race” is fortunately not synonymous with the furure of black or Africana studies. Fortunately, because the ways in which we, as {elite} academics, explore political communities are often limited by ex- clusivity (toward nonelites) and ideological conformity to neoliberal co porate structures, There are of course exceptions to the rule: where polit ical struggles have broken with academic corporate culture in the risks taken by progressive faculty and students to bring attention to demands for femninist/multicultural studies and equity for “minority” faculty, staff, and students, Antiracist feminist challenges to policies that minimize the place and presence of feminist “third world” studies faculty/students/staff offer an important struggle (and model) to be supported by academics. This is especially true for Africana studies faculty, for we are often insti- tutionally or self-constructed in ways that reinforce our status as an en ‘repreneurial caste that takes few political risks. In individual or collective efforts (in coteries) to create new forms of political community within academe, we find that the ethic of the market- place generally prevails. In our “day jobs” (which, for some, extend into the night hours of grading and research), amid the calls for increased pro- ductivity in student credit hours or publications, how do we explore, for- malate, and foment political communities to shape black studies that challenge commodification and corporatism? This question is cogent, particularly given that black studies exists in a culture that sells “X™ caps154 Joy James and “Che” Swatches in sites with restricted co we ane)“ Swatches in access to working-class and Be ial encounters in major research institutions that are ostensi ly—especially in urban areas—gated communities socialize not only im, dividual faculty but collective perceptions ofthe viable future of black studies. Work environments have an immense impact on the individuals through theit physical spaces and chetoric, they establish levels of politi, cal analyses and thresholds for political courage. [Those who shape the general perception of what Black studies is and will be, and the marketing of same, are usually located in elite schools or publishing houses. This focus on the personnel at research institutions is an acknowledgment of the hietarchy of the educational industry. As the Postmodern talented tenth, we share some of the characteristics and con. tradictions of W. E. B. Du Bois’s cohort group of the previous century. For instance, chere isthe mixed (political parentage of our ast. As Harvard istorian Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham has pointed out, this concept for an intellectual, progressive—but nonradical-—head for a mass black restive body is partly the progeny of prominent nineteenth-century white Laied io sought to counter the most egregious forms of white sux remacy while managing “the race.” Although the current presenc ‘triona eudss om clog and uniter cspare xed ct rights protests fought during a mass movement era, today the “: ies wvement era, ‘studies,” baving ben ntutonalized, stage mostly for thei tmintenance and txpansion, and to some degre fr recognition frm endowed parental Consequently, there are occupational hazards to ; al hazards to employment in Africana studies, or ethnic studies, if one takes seriously politcal comma. nity that challenges antiblack racism, (hetero)sexism, and classism in Americana cultre and politic, Fist, ther isthe leadership problem of the academic talented renth; it appears illecquipped to support or sustain poll communities with nonliesrelevantf thet rts, Inthe canon of radical black studies one reads critiques of black elite agency. Histor! call tha te ageney has oes severely erie bythe inate Bu Bois who repudiated his earlier romanticization of the talented tenth as viable political leadership for disenfranchised blacks; Ella Baker—who let hier, archical organizations such as the NAACP and SCLC to help form radical ‘grassroots groups such as SNCC; and, Frantz Fanon—whose native intel- 'cctual transformed herself from the bourgeois into the revolutionary en- ssagée. The canon of black radicalism, when read, reflects eontempotary “The Future of Black Studies 155 ‘common sense and wariness among ostracized communities who see that temployees conform for wages as well as to the expectations of their work sites. During his indictment as a “foreign agent” amid the anticommunist ‘campaigns, which led many middle-class blacks to desert him while black militant trade unionists organized for his exoneration,|Du Bois pointed ‘out that those with the least to lose (materially) are the ones most likely to ‘agitate for change.]The question to ask black studies intellectuals is how do we form politiéal community and share intellectual leadership with ‘those who have virtually little to lose. ‘In addition to the above occupational hazard of belonging to an inef- fectual leadership reluctant to counter neoliberalism, most who work in academe encounter the downsizing of political analysis even among black studies intellectuals who identify as progressives. This partly reflects the general society's garroting via media of critical political discourse. Just as democratic praxis has diminished in public life where elected officials ‘such as President Bill Clinton function more like accountants than visio aties (and university presidents act more like CEOs than critical thinkers), faculty and directors of Africana studies programs often acquiesce to de- politicization (or, really, epoliticization into neoliberalism), In his work, In Theory, Aijaz Abmad contends that “debates about culture and litera~ ture on the Left no longer presume a labour movement as the ground on which they arise; ‘theory’ is now seen as a ‘conversation’ among academic professionals.” Academic debates may sever discussions of ethnicity and race, gender, class, and sexuality from the liberation movements that shaped and continue to influence the meanings surrounding these identi ties and social formations. In academe a self/text preoccupation and ¢a- rcerism may marginalize or psychologize politcal struggles. In the present forms of black studies itis not unusual to find writers advocating for the intellectual-interrogator as more enlightened than the activist-intellectual (we also find the inflation of literary production into a form of political *activisin” without analyses ofits relationship to community organizing). Professionalizing progressive discourse, validating it within academic conversations, has alot to do with the commodification of not only black studies but black radicalism within black studies. “To counter this hazard requires new forms of political theory. Texts in- form our theories about black politics, culture, letters, and, not least of all, black liberation, But so do social movements resisting the immisera- tion of black life. And, in ways quite different from the texts of nonac- tivists, the narratives and analyses of organizers who oppose human156 Joy James janes abuses offer a resource for retooling theory and deepening our imaginations about political community and courage, The problem is thar there are few institutional incentives to retool or retrain for am Arran Studies future that privileges the demands of radicals and noneli communities. ‘The future of a black studies relevant to the mukiplicity of nonelite bac life andthe occupational hazards ofits growing employment inthe Penal industry, requires a study of the praxes of radical organizes who ‘channel critiques of abusive state polices into confrontations. In thisens text of struggle the impact of strengthening radical political communities ‘would resonate within academic black studies, One by-product of sacl, relations would be revitalis ‘When black studies academics theorize, to use Christian's verb, the conn ditions of those most vulnerable to state violence—and social movemene to confront police/miltary, INS detention centers, prisons, workfare, toxic waste sites—should shape our reflections. Such theory among the ethnically marginalized encompasses the lives of nonelites, of women, poor, youths, gayslesbians. That itis tied tothe fecovery of both historical and contemporary memory as a political pro eet speaks to a major benefit for professional thinkers. What constitutes Progressive theory, how to write and teach in ways that support progres. sive movements and critical thinking, how to think of subversive stadies sammeke than performance politics are critical issucs for the future of Black Atudies secking political communities outside of academic carcevals, We have the space to explore these issues in our work. Such a focus may gar- ‘era small audience, and smaller rewards, given the antizadicalism in US, society and academic culture. However, it provides an imporeant oppor. {unity to recover stories, analyses, and political visions too often displaced and forgotten and in that recovery some push for new forms of politica communities undisciplined by academic civility. The future of black studies is tied to past and present political battles. ‘The ways in which we recall historical and contemporary events and a. Barnett, Ella Baker, and contemporary heirs such as Angela Davis and As, Sata Shakur (Critical readers in black studies can sce thatthe future is par, ‘The Future of Black Studies 157 yr political communities if the marginalization or erasure secre ee ae Reading Is of son intellectuals and political prisoners Geor Pere anne Lager orprer ger ear ore ie to be contextualized by state viol : iat canine jin university life and theory, and marginalized within Africana eat ‘kindling memory as an extension of See bitch sae is of institutionalized black studies. It also ote to the occupational hazards ° litical community and gives perspective to over- baie the visions of political ity anc oo “ een vba Jeft future in Africana stud- 1. Ensuring the viability of a progressive eee eva have both a sobering and invigorating effect on o1 itellecte alfpolitical endeavors.