I personally feel that he is on the hip hop bandwagon like many intellectuals are doing. I prefer to read heads like Jeff Chang, Bakari Kitwana, Harry Allen, Adam Mansbach, and others who are of our generation who speak intellectually about hip hop while being ingrained in the culture.

I wish he’d use his considerable media connections and verbal acuity to write a really serious criticism of hip-hop. Loving an art form doesn’t mean you can’t be intellectually rigorous in its deconstruction.

Thank you for a excellent and informative review.

Also, I understand why it is easier, and seemingly more relevant, for black folks to make a living critiquing whites and the establishment. They (whites)have indeed brought much of this scrutiny upon themselves. But the idea that it is automatically suspect for blacks to do this to other blacks troubles me. Are we on some level saying that whites can withstand the harsh critique that comes with being held accountable for your actions, but that blacks cannot? Even considering the brutal circumstances (centuries of slavery) , I am not sure that this is a healthy approach to human development.

Your point about McWhorter’s connection to hip hop is well-taken. In addition, Dyson discusses his book on npr and you can listen to the taping on line.

Here’s my thing with McWorther and others of his ilk. I agree that they are intelligent individuals but there is a reason that he has a voice in the public sphere, a reason the conservative right has given him a platform from which to speak. In the early 80’s Reagan made a concerted effort to find black conservatives and place them in positions of symbolic influence. It was part of a plan to deconstruct the efforts of the civil rights and black power movements. The right hand-picked blacks to speak for them and for black America. My problem is 1) that we never hear the radical voice of black America speaking in such mainstream media outlets and 2) these conservative voices don’t ever have to answer to black folks the same way even a Dyson does. When I say he has little legitimacy I mean that McWorther, unlike someone like a Dyson, did not make his mark by making a legitimate contribution to black American culture. He, like Shelby Steele, made his name by criticizing black American culture. I have to question and critique that. Moreover, my point about his legitimacy really has to do with hip-hop. He should not have any platform to speak about hip-hop because he’s not a part of it and just because he’s listened to it (which he has claimed) does not mean he understands or can even begin to place it within its proper context. My problem with Dyson’s book is that he does have the technical skill and appreciation to deal with hip-hop. He has shown that he cares about hip-hop culture. The only reason anyone takes McWorther’s comments about hip-hop seriously is because he’s black. So, he can be selective about his blackness (when and how he wants to apply it). We would never acknowledge a white intellectual who speaks about American culture generally to automatically have a platform to critique hip-hop culture, so why should a black public intellectual who writes about black pathology (from a pseudo-scholarly point of view at that) get a free pass to write about a culture he has no critical contact with otherthan the CDs he claims to listen to.

If you want to read more about exactly what the conservative right did to create this black conservative voice and to give it legitimacy check out Robert C. Smith’s We Have No Leaders. It’s an excellent book.

Last thing: Just because 80% of McWorther’s mail comes from approving black folks means nothing to me. Harriet Tubman once said, “I freed a thousand slaves. I could have freed a thousand more if they knew they were slaves.” This isn’t to say these folks are slaves. It is to say people often don’t know their own condition, and yes, this cuts both ways.

Bottom line: a lot of otherwise intelligent black folk secretely agree with McWorther (and Clarence Thomas) because it’s in their interest to do so, because they themselves have been successful in mainstream American and therefore believe everyone else should be, and because they don’t know history or want to seriously engage with the cruel and inhumane facts of this nation’s treatment of people of color and poor/working people because to do so makes them uncomfortable. If these folks agree with McWorther, they need to step out of the shadows and own up to it so that we can have a more engaged dialogue. As long as they cower in the dark (for whatever self-serving reason) I cannot respect them.