Sunday, August 14, 2005

Ebony and Jet

John McWhorter notes that they offer an alternative to the dominant view of African Americans since the sixties:

...the fact remains that since the 60's, blacks have found that some assimilation and striving in the mainstream is usually a surer path to success than embracing angry separatism. Ebony and Jet have covered this triumph lovingly, and this becomes another reason that they can seem a tad quaint, given the eternal static in the air claiming that the scowling poses of the likes of Vibe magazine are the essence of "real" for black people.

But this quaintness is a victory: it shows that blacks hitting the heights in the mainstream arena are no longer extraordinary. In the 70's on its television page, Jet could point readers to almost every black performer with a regular gig. Today, blacks are so common on the tube that Jet can list only a few scattered highlights. That is something to celebrate.

Read the whole thing.

2 comments:

dcat said...

McWhorter is always good. I sometimes assign one of his books in my civil rights class just to ensure that my students get a view that breaks out of the orthodoxy that has emerged among many who write about African American life. Even when I vehemenstly disagree with him, he is always provocative.

Tom said...

"Even when I vehemenstly disagree with him, he is always provocative."

Me too, and probably on entirely different issues.