Jack Salzman, Cornel West Struggles in the Promised

Nation Time! \\ 349
Likewise, the dilemma of fighting for a country which failed to recognize some of
its soldiers as full-fledged citizens received extensive airing among the war's Black
opponents. As a popular line put it: "No Vietnamese ever called me a nigger."
This antiwar posture invigorated the increasing tendency among Black nationalists
to see the struggles of the Vietnamese and African Americans as comparable.
Black nationalist opposition to the war also spoke forcefully to the need for the
Third World to unite against the First, for peoples of color to unite against the
white West, and for progressive nations to unite for nationalist self-determination
and against colonialism, imperialism, and racism.
Ill
Most Blacks, especially those in the working and middle classes, found comfort
in the Black pronouncements of Third Worldism, even though they neither formally
analyzed nor embraced it. It remained primarily an ideological construct, a
rhetorical device, promoted for a variety of ends by numerous Black activists,
including internationalists and nationalists. Of course, these were often the same
people. In the aftermath of his pilgrimmage to Mecca, his assassination, and the
publication of his gripping autobiography, Malcolm X became the most influential
African American voice urging his people to envision their own nationalist
struggle as inextricably wedded to those of peoples of color. In tandem with the
impact of Frantz Fanon's forceful arguments for the psychological and political
necessity of Third Worldism as central to progressive nationalism among nations
of color, those of Malcolm X proved especially compelling. 16
Most Blacks, especially those in the working and middle classes, found comfort
in the Black pronouncements of Third Worldism, even though they neither formally
analyzed nor embraced it. It remained primarily an ideological construct, a
rhetorical device, promoted for a variety of ends by numerous Black activists,
including internationalists and nationalists. Of course, these were often the same
people. In the aftermath of his pilgrimmage to Mecca, his assassination, and the
publication of his gripping autobiography, Malcolm X became the most influential
African American voice urging his people to envision their own nationalist
struggle as inextricably wedded to those of peoples of color. In tandem with the
impact of Frantz Fanon's forceful arguments for the psychological and political
necessity of Third Worldism as central to progressive nationalism among nations
of color, those of Malcolm X proved especially compelling.
For nationalist Blacks, particularly those with a Third World commitment,
Pan-Africanism represented a compelling ideology precisely because it linked the
histories and destinies of Africans worldwide: on the continent and throughout
the diaspora. The lure of Pan-Africanism often proved irresistible for a variety of
reasons. For one, Pan-Africanism spoke directly to a powerful need among many
Black nationalists to identify with the mythic homeland: the "motherland" and
the "fatherland." For another, it gave them specific independent African
nations—like Ghana under Kwame Nkrumah—as models and projections for
their nationalist hopes and dreams. Furthermore, as with Third Worldism, Pan-
Africanism encouraged African Americans to see themselves as part of an increasingly
mighty majority—peoples of color worldwide—rather than simply an
oppressed minority nation of color within a white-dominated United States. In
addition, a venerable heritage encompassing the likes of Edward W. Blyden in the
nineteenth century and W.E.B. Du Bois in the twentieth, along with the series of
twentieth-century international Pan-African congresses, gave the idea historical
cogency.
Even more than in the case of Black Power, however, the calls for commitment
to Pan-Africanism and Third Worldism often proved more rhetorical than real. In
spite of the heightened awareness among Blacks about Third Worldism and Pan-
16
For nationalist Blacks, particularly those with a Third World commitment,
Pan-Africanism represented a compelling ideology precisely because it linked the
histories and destinies of Africans worldwide: on the continent and throughout
the diaspora. The lure of Pan-Africanism often proved irresistible for a variety of
reasons. For one, Pan-Africanism spoke directly to a powerful need among many
Black nationalists to identify with the mythic homeland: the "motherland" and
the "fatherland." For another, it gave them specific independent African
nations—like Ghana under Kwame Nkrumah—as models and projections for
their nationalist hopes and dreams. Furthermore, as with Third Worldism, Pan-
Africanism encouraged African Americans to see themselves as part of an increasingly
mighty majority—peoples of color worldwide—rather than simply an
oppressed minority nation of color within a white-dominated United States. In
addition, a venerable heritage encompassing the likes of Edward W. Blyden in the
nineteenth century and W.E.B. Du Bois in the twentieth, along with the series of
twentieth-century international Pan-African congresses, gave the idea historical
cogency.
Even more than in the case of Black Power, however, the calls for commitment
to Pan-Africanisrn and Third Worldism often proved more rhetorical than real. In
spite of the heightened awareness among Blacks about Third Worldism and Pan-