Dispatches from the Ebony Tower: Intellectuals Confront the African American Experience

by Manning Marable

Overview

What constitutes black studies and where does this discipline stand at the end of the twentieth century? In this wide-ranging and original volume, Manning Marable—one of the leading scholars of African American history—gathers key materials from contemporary thinkers who interrogate the richly diverse content and multiple meanings of the collective experiences of black folk.

Here are numerous voices expressing very different political, cultural, and historical views, from black conservatives, to black separatists, to blacks who advocate radical democratic transformation. Here are topics ranging from race and revolution in Cuba, to the crack epidemic in Harlem, to Afrocentrism and its critics. All of these voices, however, are engaged in some aspect of what Marable sees as the essential triad of the black intellectual tradition: describing the reality of black life and experiences, critiquing racism and stereotypes, or proposing positive steps for the empowerment of black people.

Highlights from Dispatches from the Ebony Tower:

• Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Manning Marable debate the role of activism in black studies.

• John Hope Franklin reflects on his role as chair of the President's race initiative.

• Cornel West discusses topics that range from the future of the NAACP through the controversies surrounding Louis Farrakhan and black nationalism to the very question of what "race" means.

• Amiri Baraka lays out strategies for a radical new curriculum in our schools and universities.

• Marable's introduction provides a thorough overview of the history and current state of black studies in America.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780231114769
Publisher:	Columbia University Press
Publication date:	03/30/2000
Pages:	352
Product dimensions:	6.29(w) x 9.26(h) x 1.10(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Manning Marable is professor of history and political science and director of the Institute for Research in African American Studies at Columbia University. He is the author of W.E. B. Du Bois: Black Radical Democrat; Speaking Truth to Power: Essays on Race, Resistance, and Radicalism; Race, Reform, and Rebellion: The Second Reconstruction in Black America, 1945–1990, and Black Leadership (Columbia, 1998).

Table of Contents

Introduction: Black Studies and the Black Intellectual Tradition, by Manning Marable
One: Theorizing the Black World: Race in the Postcolonial, Post-Civil Rights Era
1. Toward an Effective Antiracism, by Nikhil Pal Singh
2. The Political Moment in Jamaica: The Dimensions of the Hegemonic Dissolution, by Brian Meeks
3. Sandoms and Other Exotic Women: Prostitution and Race in the Caribbean, by Kamala Kempadoo
4. Race and Revolution in Cuba: African-American Perspectives, by Manning Marable
5. The Fire This Time: Harlem and Its Discontents at the Turn of the Century, by Johanna Fernandez
6. Crack Cocaine and Harlem's Health., by Beverly Xaviera Watkins and Mindy Thompson Fullilove
Two: Mapping African-American Studies
7. African-American Studies and the "Warring Ideals": The Color Line Meets the Borderlands, by Johnnella E. Butler
8. The Future of Black Studies: Political Communities and the "Talented Tenth", by Joy James
9. Black Studies and the Question of Class, by Bill Fletcher Jr.
10. Black Studies: A Critical Reassessment, by Maulana Karenga
11. Black Studies Revisited, by Martin Kilson
12. Theorizing Black Studies: The Continuing Role of Community Service in the Study of Race and Class, by James Jennings
13. A Debate on Activism in Black Studies, by Henry Louis Gates Jr. & Manning Marable
Three: Afrocentrism and Its Critics
14. Afrocentrism, Race, and Reason., by Molefi Kete Asante
15. Afrocentrics, Afro-elitists, and Afro-eccentrics: The Polarization of Black Studies Since the Students Struggles of the Sixties, by Melba Joyce Boyd
16. Reclaiming Culture: The Dialectics of Identity, by Leith Mullings
17. Afrocentrism, Culture Nationalism, and the Problem with Essentialist Definitions of Race, Gender, and Sexuality, by Barbara Ransby
18. Afrocentricity and the American Dream, by Lee D. Baker
19. Multinational, Multicultural America Versus White Supremacy, by Amiri Baraka
Four: Race And Ethnicity in American Life
20. The Problematic of Ethnic Studies, by Manning Marable
21. Prophetic Alternatives: A Conversation with Cornel West
22. Race in American Life: A Conversation with John Hope Franklin

What People are Saying About This

Robin D.G. Kelley

What an impressive gathering of minds! With political insight and intellectual acuity, Marable has assembled key reflections, investigations and debates on Afro-America — and in doing so has produced one of the most profound statements on the contemporary United States in print. Representing a broad range of ideologies and opinions, Dispatches from the Ebony Tower will force us all to re-think the relationship between social struggles, scholarship, pedagogy, as well as the fundamental role race plays in modern American life.

George E. Curry

Dispatches from the Ebony Tower brings together an impressive array of intellectuals to examine the African American experience. The result is a lively and insightful debate that provides us with a framework for dealing with the last remnants of colonialism. In this unusual collection, Manning Marable and his colleagues provide us with an invaluable education while simultaneously honoring the rich legacies of W. E. B. Du Bois, Carter G. Woodson, and Ida B. Wells-Barnett. This is not a book anyone who purports to be well-informed can afford to miss.

— George E. Curry, Editor-in-Chief, Emerge: Black America's Newsmagazine

Margaret B. Wilkerson

As black studies scholars and programs celebrate three decades of scholarship and teaching, Manning Marable gives us a book that documents their history and intellectual achievements. Dispatches from the Ebony Tower is a rich compendium of essays that explores the global implications of this work, the taxonomy of these programs, the defining debates, and the relationship that this field, to its credit, insists upon maintaining with American life. This book is, quite simply, one that should be read by anyone who claims or wants to be informed about critical issues facing contemporary society and what leading intellectuals have to say.

— Margaret B. Wilkerson, Ph.D., Program Officer, The Ford Foundation

Robin D. G. Kelley

What an impressive gathering of minds! With political insight and intellectual acuity, Marable has assembled key reflections, investigations and debates on Afro-America -- and in doing so has produced one of the most profound statements on the contemporary United States in print. Representing a broad range of ideologies and opinions, Dispatches from the Ebony Tower will force us all to re-think the relationship between social struggles, scholarship, pedagogy, as well as the fundamental role race plays in modern American life.

— Robin D. G. Kelley, author of Yo' Mama's DisFunktional!: Fighting the Culture Wars in Urban America.

Editorial Reviews

Marable has brought together incisive minds who display a willingness to be forhtright in their criticisms, yet who are clearly deeply invested in the future of African American Studies.... An essential read for those committed to maintaining a black racial presence on campuses in the US as well as elsewhere.

Ethnic and Racial Studies

[Marable] has compiled a sophisticated collection that outlines the issues, organizes the history, and identifies the intellectual leaders who have guided black studies programs and the African American movement . . . Highly recommended for students and scholars of US history, upper-division undergraduates through professionals.

Choice

What an impressive gathering of minds! With political insight and intellectual acuity, Manning Marable has assembled key reflections, investigations and debates on Afro-America -and in doing so has produced one of the most profound statements on the contemporary United States in print. Representing a broad range of ideologies and opinions, Dispatches from the Ebony Tower will force us all to re-think the relationship between social struggles, scholarship, pedagogy, as well as the fundamental role race plays in modern American life.

Robin D. G. Kelley

As black studies scholars and programs celebrate three decades of scholarship and teaching, Manning Marable gives us a book that documents their history and intellectual achievements. Dispatches from the Ebony Tower is a rich compendium of essays that explores the global implications of this work, the taxonomy of these programs, the defining debates, and the relationship that this field, to its credit, insists upon maintaining with American life. This book is, quite simply, one that should be read by anyone who claims or wants to be informed about critical issues facing contemporary society and what leading intellectuals have to say.

Margaret B. Wilkerson

Dispatches from the Ebony Tower brings together an impressive array of intellectuals to examine the African American experience. The result is a lively and insightful debate that provides us with a framework for dealing with the last remnants of colonialism. In this unusual collection, Manning Marable and his colleagues provide us with an invaluable education while simultaneously honoring the rich legacies of W. E. B. Du Bois, Carter G. Woodson, and Ida B. Wells-Barnett. This is not a book anyone who purports to be well-informed can afford to miss.

George E. Curry