Pollitt on West

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

Daniel wrote:
>But it seems to me that one thing Pollitt or anyone else should have
>addressed is this: the phenomenon of academic or cerebral-Stars trying --
>at long last -- to "intervene" or enter into civil society, or non-academic
>contexts.  I say it is a good thing that West (or whomever) tries to do
>this <snip>
<snip>
>And if I am a black intellectual, ensconced in academe and the upper
>middle-class generally, how in the hell can I *not* try and have some roots
>or contacts within the Nation of Islam, warts and all?  In this the late
>bourgeois world of America, one's potential, to-be-aligned-with social
>movements are neither plentiful or pretty.  But still, as anachronistic as
>it might seem, it strikes me that the organic-intellectual model of
>Gramsci, is a fine ideal, or is at least "tonic."

If West wants to "dialogue" with the Nation of Islam (or mainly its
leaders), because his academic stardom makes him feel out of touch with the
"grassroots" of black America, perhaps what he has and is doing shouldn't
be called "intervention." It's merely West borrowing the grassroots aura
from a very small  but well-known--and morst importantly,
*ready-made*--constituency that the media loves. Nothing particularly
"organic" (in the Gramscian sense) about it here.

Yoshie