Adolph Reed

[Thomas Mertes]

I think that slamming Adolph Reed without him being able to respond is
politically unsound. Given that this is a "public" forum - he should be
able to defend his positions. He has been an exemplar of the Praxis/theory
that everyone here seems to subscribe to. His invovlement in the Labor
Party has been critical. It certainly is not revolutionary but is far
better than our present one party rule. Likewise, his work on Jackson and
DuBois while not perfect is far better than most of the crap that is
written. I am all for a dialectical discussion, but I am against running
down a comrade in a public forum without his knowledge seems to me very
divisive.   


>Of course Reed, since he knows that literary scholarship is simply
corrupt, would never bother to read Adell or Spillers.  Which brings me to
the recent book, W.E.B. Du Bois and American Political Thought.  If you
need to diagnose my distaste for Reed, start there.  Only after reading
that book did I finally see, clearly, what a lightweight he is.

Thomas E. Mertes, Administrator
4355G Public Policy Building
Center for Social Theory 

	and Comparative History
Box 951484, UCLA
Los Angeles, CA 90095
office (310) 206-5675 fax 206-4453