The Devil and Mr. Hicks

[Gordon Fitch]

Dennis Perrin, From Cooper's piece:
> "Hicks' more diplomatic tone is a special challenge to the left. It's the
> left, after all, that lays claim to independent and critical thinking. It
> should welcome Hicks' polemics as one more invitation to reflect and
> rethink. Not to run up a white flag and surrender to the right, nor to whip
> out a sledgehammer and try to beat Hicks -- or Horowitz for that matter --
> into the ground. But rather to rise to the debate and confront some of the
> thornier issues raised by Hicks' apostasy. Must the narrative of the left
> remain rooted in victimization? Can race politics be transcended without
> abandoning a critique of racism? Can the left, in short, get past the dusty
> cant of the last 30 years and conjure a proactive vision with popular
> appeal?"

Which "the left" is he talking about?  The Left I'm aware of
is extremely variegated and can hardly be said to have a
uniform opinion on race, or much of anything else.

-- Gordon