Revolutionary Vision: Black Women Writers, Black Nationalist Ideology, and Interracial Sexuality

Revolutionary Vision Black Women Writers, Black Nationalist Ideology, and Interracial Sexuality SHANE TRUDELL VERGE What is always needed...is the laraer perspective. Connections made, or at least attempted, where none existed before, the straining to encompass in one's alance at the varied world the common thread, the unijyina theme throuah immense diversity, a/earlessness ofgrowth, ofsearch, o/looking, that enlarges the private and the public world. —Alice Walker, "Saving the Life That is Your Own,"from In Search ofOut Mothers' Gardens Benedict Anderson has defined nationalism as "the expression ofa radically changed form ofconsciousness," one which necessitates the "forgetting ofthe older consciousness" and the simultaneous creation ofits own narrative (Anderson 1991, xiv). Given this definition, we might see the products ofthe Black Arts Movement—which William L. Van Deburg has called the "spiritual sister" ofthe Black Power Movement—as a fundamental component ofthe narrative created for the community imagined through the Black Nationalist Movement of the 1960s and 1970s. This narrative, moreover, was as complex as the ideologies that spurred its production. In fact, although the movement was "diverse in manner and mode of expression, it was the collective thrust of these activists toward racial pride, strength, and self-definition that came to be called the Black Power Movement" (Van Deburg 1992, 2). Indeed, the narratives that came into being during the movement are compelling examples ofthe intricacies within Black Nationalist thought and often constitute important challenges to BlackNationalism. The narratives under discussion here—TheChosen Place, TheTimeless People by Paule [Meridians:feminism, race, transnationalism 2002, vol. 2, no. 2, pp. 101-25]©2002 by Wesleyan University Press. All rights reserved. Marshall, Wedding Band byAlice Childress, and Correaidora byGaylJones— draw on the theme ofinterracial sexuality to explore the complexities of Black Nationalism, to challenge the contradictions between Black Nationalist ideology and practice, and to analyze the meanings and limits ofrace and community. Interracial sexuality, then, becomes more than a common thread among these works; it becomes a profoundly useful tool in their discussions ofdifference and sameness, ofunity and community , ofnation and relation. Through their use ofinterracial sexuality, these narratives demonstrate a challenge to common assumptions about the homogeneity ofBlack Nationalism and the Black Power Movement. Van Deburg defines two fundamental ideologies ofBlack Power: pluralism and nationalism. Pluralism was supported by those who believed blacks needed to enter a "transitional period of'strategic separatism' in preparation for full integration within the American economy" (Van Deburg 1992, 120). They believed that blacks should be afforded equal access to opportunities within the economy and that they should design safeguards to secure and maintain their independence within this newly widened sphere. Although pluraliste believed coalitions with other groups were potentially positive, they highlighted the necessity that such coalitions advance the black agenda ofsecuring resources, opportunity, and thereby power. While pluraliste advanced an idea of "strategic separatism," proponents of the second ideology Van Deburg highlights—nationalismadvocated a similar separatist imperative. Those that Van Deburg terms territorial separatists demanded that blacks relocate themselves geographically to literally become a nation. This new community was imagined as either the literal manifestation of blacks' position as a "nation within a nation" through black control ofcertain sections ofthe United States or as a call for emigration. In any case, territorial separatists urged blacks to band together as a nation with a homeland. A second nationalistgroup, revolutionarynationalists, did not demand space within the existing capitalist system (as pluraliste did) or geographical space upon which to build their nation (as territorial separatists did). Rather, revolutionary nationalists demanded that the current oppressive capitalist system be eradicated not simply in the United States but internationally. Their beliefin the need to free all people from capitalist oppression allowed revolutionary nationalists to form alliances with Third World peoples and even radical whites. Like other Black Nationalists, however, they prioritized the necessity ofmaintaining black SHANE TRUDELL VERGE control over their own organizations when coalitions with whites were formed. As an organization founded on revolutionary nationalist ideology , the Black Panther Party maintained black control but envisioned a new, egalitarian international sphere wherein economic and political resources would be distributed among all communities (Van Deburg 1992, 162). Cultural nationalists comprise the third and final nationalist camp that Van Deburg...