>Yet
>West doesn't exonerate victims of racism for irresponsibility or criminality
>(something for which his critics on the conventional academic left, like
>Adolph Reed, can't forgive him). West is blunt about what he calls black
>"nihilism"--what he defines as "a numbing detachment from others and a
>self-destructive disposition toward the world."
I love this. Reed is "conventional," West is bold. Now who's the one published by university and nonprofit presses - and who's the one with a $750,000 salary, a $20,000 speaking fee, and the ear of a presidential candidate? And which does the writer for Slate (TM of Microsoft) approve of? How counterhegemonic.
Doug