Prometheus 6

author: Houston A. Baker asin: 0231139640 binding: Hardcover list price: $24.95 USD amazon price: $16.47 USD

Betrayal: How Black Intellectuals Have Abandoned the Ideals of the Civil Rights Era by Houston A. Baker isn’t properly described by its title because it covers a bit more than Black intellectuals. It reminds me a lot of Harold Cruse’s Crisis of the Negro Intellectual. It’s roughly three parts analysis and one part vengeance. Prof. Baker takes aim at a wide array of target, from John McWhorter (for failing to live up to Dr. King’s example) to Irving Kristol (for creating the political movement he feels was key in undermining Black interest). He draws on the writings of Dr. King and W.E.B. DuBois to establish his position, yet never claims to present more than his personal reactions.

If you’re going to read the book you should start at the beginning. The introduction, Little Africa, shows you to the shaping forces in his life, the greatest of them being his parents, while Jail introduces his understanding of Dr. King and his legacy (there‘s a touch of hagiography here, but if anyone deserves it, Dr. King does). Between them you will be firmly grounded in the Professor's world view and comfortable with his use of Black metaphors, or you will be so lost, you will just put the book down. Putting it down would be a choice, not a necessity; if you get lost it will be because you wandered off the trail he marks. Maybe I feel that way because, to me, the markers define a trail I’m familiar with. And the last three chapters, American Myth, and Prison (excluding the conclusion, sub-headed What Then Must We Do?), are more about what Black intellectuals have not done.

The good parts, the fun parts, lay between these two sections. This is where Prof. Baker takes aim at those who profit by the fact that we are still troubled, in ways that increase that trouble. He shows how the fathers of neo-conservatism grew out of the liberal movement that was inspired by the Black liberation movement. He shows how, from a Black experiential perspective, it is really a very short walk from your typical mainstream liberal position to a neocon disdain for specifically addressing damage inflicted on the Black communities (in fact, that proof can be reduced to one of the many Martin Luther King Jr. quotes he provides: “Loose and easy language about equality, resonant resolutions about brotherhood fall pleasantly on the ear, but for the Negro there is a credibility gap he cannot overlook. He remembers that with each modest advance the white population promptly raises the argument that the Negro has come far enough. Each step forward accents an ever-present tendency to backlash.”).

He challenges Michael Dyson and Cornel West more harshly than I would (not that I don’t have issues, I just wouldn’t be that harsh) while acknowledging they likely mean well. But in Have Mask Will Travel, Dr. West gets nailed again for questionable material in a jointly written book with Dr. Henry Lewis Gates. And Dr. Gates has a particularly hard way to go here. I believe this chapter was written for Dr. Gates’ “benefit.”

But the full measure of his ire is reserved for Shelby Steele, Stephen Carter and John McWhorter, each of whom gets a full chapter of comeuppance.

My problems with the book are minor. Prof. Baker truly holds Dr. King as his model and personal idol. The Dr. King he presents is the one we are currently in the process of recovering from the mangled mess Conservatives (and Black Conservatives in particular) have made of his legacy; as such he mentions, rather than explains, the larger Black Power movement. No disrespect there, I believe. The history of that movement, too, needs recovery and that work is underway. And because the prior chapters focus so much on humans, the last chapters (which speak to institutional issues that are not being addressed) feel, for all their importance, like they were tacked onto the end for completeness.

As I said, though, these are just nits. Betrayal is more personal than scholarly, but no less serious for all that. I don’t think it will change anyone’s mind one way or the other, but if you find yourself asking, “What’s wrong with that boy?” when listening to Black Conservatives, you will likely find Betrayal informative and amusing at once.