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Foreword: Strong Men Keep A Comin On
- University of Pennsylvania Press
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Foreword: Strong Men Keep A- Comin On Cornel West In 1932 Sterling Brown, one of the great black men of the twentieth century, published a monumental work of poetry, Southern Road. In Part I, called “Road So Rocky”—a phrase that still describes what young brothers encounter in so many chocolate cities—is a poem called “Strong Men.” In this catastrophic moment for so many black brothers growing up in impoverished communities, we must recall and invoke the tradition of strong men, men of courage, wisdom, and dignity, as did Sterling Brown in his time. I grew up in the 1950s and ’60s, and when I think of black men I think of my grandfather, Rev. Clifton West, Sr., and my late father, Clifton West, Jr. I always associated black men with tremendous style, elegance, resiliency, and agency. I associated black men with being able to overcome , to look darkness in the face unflinchingly and still smile like Louis Armstrong, or “keep on pushing” like Curtis Mayfield. That’s my conception of black men, but that is not a hegemonic or predominant perception these days. Why so? The current view of black men has something to do with the fact that we have been living for forty years in an ice age where it is fashionable to be indifferent to poor people suffering, the most vulnerable citizens suffering . Young black men are a significant slice of the most vulnerable, so they are rendered invisible. In the great metaphor of Ralph Ellison, they become so invisible that the dilapidated housing, the disgraceful school systems, the lack of access to jobs that pay a living wage, the underemployment and unemployment that afflict young men in the inner city— all these have now become part of the norm. When we hear stories documenting racial discrimination in hiring today, we almost have to laugh to keep from crying as we see how that legacy of white supremacy still operates. We say to ourselves, my God, is the culture still that sick, is society still that pathological, is the U.S. still that indifferent to the 00Anderson_FM i-xvi.qxd 2/20/08 11:20 AM Page ix full-fledged humanity of black men? The philosopher William James used to say that indifference is the one trait that makes the very angels weep, and I say that heaven must be overflowing with a flood when we look at the ways in which the wounds, bruises, and scars of black people in general and black men in particular are still overlooked, ignored, and downplayed. No doubt. As we call for national action to address the desperate situation of young men in America’s chocolate cities today, we are also issuing an indictment of national inaction; the two go hand in hand. In late 2004, the grand freedom fighter, my dear brother Tavis Smiley, conceived of a covenant with black America. We wanted it to become so popular that people had to talk about it, that young folk felt as if they had to get in on it, or they were missing out on it. This historic book, The Covenant with Black America (2006), was number one on the New York Times bestseller list, owing to Smiley’s visionary leadership and inexhaustible energy. On national tours (with Professor Eddie Glaude and myself) speaking about The Covenant with Black America and the sequel, The Covenant in Action, we visited churches and communities where we interacted with young folk. We’re trying to get the young folk to see that there are ways in which we can reproduce the strength, courage, and wisdom of past generations of black men. My question is this: What are the conditions under which we reproduce strong black men, self-respecting black men, self-regarding black men, self-loving black men, who recognize they’re in a kind of war? It’s a war not against whiteness, but against injustice, white supremacy, male supremacy, homophobia, wealth inequality, and imperial arrogance. That’s the best of the history of black people, the best of the history of black men. As we reflect on the miserable statistics documenting the deplorable conditions in which so many young black men exist today, let us not downplay the crucial roles in our history played by the strong black men in every generation. We remember their names: David Walker, heroic author of the 1829 Appeal to “colored citizens” to make common cause with their enslaved brothers and sisters and rise...