Relationship of Philosophy to
African-American Studies
A Materialist Assessment on The Black
Scholar and Its Intellectual Legacy
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John H. McClendon
Allen would join The Black Scholar editorial board and currently is senior editor. The
inclusion of Allen amplified the leftist anticapitalist orientation of The Black Scholar.'^
I still own the inaugural issue, "The Culture of Revolution." I contend that President
Skou Tour's profoundly insightful philosophical essay, "A Dialectical Approach to
Culture," stands out as one of the premier
contributions and formidable introductions to the presentation of the dialectical
materialist philosophical analysis of African culture, particularly in the throes of the
anti-imperialist struggle. Within the context of the Black Studies movement in the
United States, concerns about the nature
of Black culture, at that time, were pivotal
in the ranks of the black liberation movement. The clarion call for idealist forms of
cultural nationalism, both as an ideological perspective for Black liberation and as
the philosophical bedrock of Black Studies,
was hotly debated in the pages of The Black
Scholar.^ Jour's essay gave us penetrating
insights into how culture was dialectically
adjoined to a materialist philosophical approach. Tour argues:
The creation of material values, the creation of spiritual values, the creation and
development of this global culture progresses continuously despite momentary
slowing-down, stagnation and setbacks.
Material culture production and spiritual
cultural production are dialectically linked
and exercise a reciprocal influence on
each other. But the absolute priority rests
with material production, which itself participates directly in man's concrete action.
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critique calling into question the issues relating to logical reasoning, theoretical consistency, systemic conceptual contradictions,
and interpretative evaluations adjoined to
given formulations, theses, paradigms, or
theoretical frameworks. In African-American
studies (AAS), William R. Jones imparts to
us one of the first scholarly efforts in utilizing this method of internal criticism. Jones's
powerful text Is God a White Racist? is an
illuminating (internal) critique of Black liberation theology.'^
Ideological critique, however, need not
be devoid of empirical or conceptual criticism. The only qualification is that in the
case of ideological critique, we discover
all conceptual criticism follows from an
external vantage point. Matters of logical
reasoning, theoretical consistency, systemic
conceptual contradictions, and interpretive
evaluations affixed to and adjoined with
given formulations, theses, paradigms, or
theoretical frameworks derive ultimately
from ideological differences or fundamental
divergences in worldview.
There is also another instance of Internal criticism, which does not rely upon the
prima facie exclusive utilization of empirical and/or conceptual critique. The key
concept here is the caveat, prima facie. If
it is assumed one is engaged in ideological critique or external criticism, and yet,
for whatever reason, the critic overlooks or
fails to comprehend there are in fact shared
ideological commitments, with the ideology
under investigation, then this putative ideological critique Is objectively an internal criticism. The prior bi-conditional stipulation (if
and only if the fundamental presuppositions,
assumptions, and presumptions engaged are
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foundationally different than those informing the critique) cohesively outlines the conditions for ideological critique. Given we
operate with a bi-conditional stipulation,
then such requirements are both objectively
and absolutely mandatory.'^
What we have in this second instance of
internal criticism is a contradiction between
intended ideological functions and objectively rendered ideological practices. This is
what I designate as the dialectics of ideological critique in AAS. The dialectical contradiction of intended ideological critique and
de facto ideological commitment of racial/
racialist ideologues to bourgeois ideology
is the substance that forms the basis for this
essay. The racial/racialist critique is constituted in a kind of dichotomized theoretical
modus operandi, wherein Black intellectual/
cultural paradigms stand contra white intellectual/cultural paradigms.'" Subsequently,
despite all intended purposes, this modus
operandi undermines the critique of white
supremacy and racism when understood
as forms of bourgeois ideology. Hence, this
kind of critique defaults in its attempt to be
specifically Ideological in character.''
Over the years, since its founding, the
pages of The Black Scholar have allowed
various thinkers to demonstrate how Marxism-Leninism is concretely a philosophy
of liberation. Thus, from the philosophical
standpoint of Marxism-Leninism, People's
College, "A Study Program: Imperialism and
Black Liberation," Wilber Haddock's "Black
Workers Lead the Way," and Amiri Baraka in
"Needed: A Revolutionary Strategy" point us
to strategies for Black liberation in the United
States. Additionally, Frank Wright's "The National Question: A Marxist Critique" accents
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Notes
1. I capitalize the word "Black" when making reference to people of African descent. For a
number of years, it was customary to use this in
Darlene Clark Hie, "The Black Studies Movement: Afrocentric-Traditionalist-Feminist Paradigms for the Next Stage," The Black Scholar 22,
no. 3 (1992): 11-18; Roosevelt Johnson, "Black
Administrators and Higher Education," The Black
Scholar 1, no. 1 (1969): 66-76; William H. McClendon, "Black Studies: Education for Liberation," The Black Scholar 6, no. 1 (1974): 1525;
Robert Staples, "Racial Ideology and Intellectual
Racism: Blacks in Academia," The Black Scholar
15, no. 2 (1984): 2-1 7; LukeTripp, "The Political
Views of Black Students During the Reagan Era,"
The Black Scholar 22, no. 3 (1992): 45-52; Alvin
Poussaint, "The Black Administrator in the White
University," The Black Scholar 6, no. 1 (1974):
8-14; Bobby Seal, "An Appeal from Prison: Revolutionary Action on Campus and Community,"
The Black Scholar ^, no. 2 (1969): 4-7.
6. Amilcar Cabrai, "The Cuinean Revolution:
The Struggle Has Taken Root," The Black Scholar
4, no. 10 (1973): 28-31; Eldridge Cleaver, "Education and Revolution," The Black Scholar 1,
no. 1 (1969): 44-52; C. L. R. James, "The Black
Scholar Interviews: C. L. R. James," The Black
Scholar 2, no. 1 (1970): 35-43; Stokely Carmichael, "Marxism-Leninism and Nkrumahism,"
The Black Scholar 4, no. 5: (1973): 41-43; Angela Y Davis, "Rape, Racism and the Capitalist Setting," The Black Scholar 9, no. 7 (1978):
24-30; Wilbur Haddock, "Black Workers Lead
the Way," The Black Scholar 5, no. 3 (1973):
43_48; Julia Herv, "Kwame Nkrumah: His Last
Views of African Struggle," The Black Scholar 4,
no. 10 (1973): 24-27; Phil Hutchins, "Report
of the ALSC Conference," The Black Scholar 5,
no. 10 (1974): 48-53; Cheddi Jaggan, "Cuyana
at the Crossroads," The Black Scholar 5, no. 10
(1974): 43-47; Clarence J. Munford, "The Fallacy
of Lumpen Ideology," The Black Scholar 4, no.
3 Ouly/August 1973): 47-51; Clarence J. Munford, "imperialism and Third World Economics:
Part One of Two Parts," The Black Scholar 6, no.
7 (1975): 15-25; Earl Ofari, "A Critical Review
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