Does my being a Black man impact my theories of the family ? This sounds like "identity. epistemology" theory.
Anyway, to investigate such an approach to my theory, we have to know what my theory of the family is.
I have a feminist
theory of "the" family, discussion
of power relations and all.
I call it what's good for the
goose is good for the gander
feminism ( it actually
applies to white men too). Maybe
I could be used as a guinea
pig on Black men's theories
of the family ( From the original Guinea
:.>) ).
Actually, Katha Pollitt and I had a brief debate on the origin of the family , Engels and all, on Marxist-Feminist list.
I wonder what bel hooks, the Black feminist, has to say about West's book being discussed ? hooks and West wrote _Breaking Bread_ together as a joint book. Insurgent, organic intellectuals sounded good especially in Reaganism. The contradiction in it that struck me was the notion of combining religion and critical thinking.
I haven't read the book by West referred to on this thread. I have seen West out as an activist more than many celebrity scholars. He showed up in mags and journals and meetings of true grassroots and working class political activities, other than the NOI.
Happy New Year ! With Barbara E., for fun in the rev.,
John Henry
Detroit
>>> <d-m-c at worldnet.att.net> 12/31 8:08 PM >>>
At 07:33 PM 12/31/1998 -0500, you wrote:
> At any rate, how does one
>justify West's silence about power within the family?
Because he's Black.
That's not a justification, rather an attempt to understand. The family and the power relations therein is experienced rather differently for Black men than it is for white men, middle class or otherwise. This is pretty clear, just quickly skim the literature on the family written by Black men and, of course, take a look at the literature on the family written by Black women. Frankly, I think West ought to at least have been a bit more aware of these debates, tensions, fields of contestation. Again, it's not a justification, an observation about something I'm familiar with as I teach about families and Black families on occassion.