Jack Salzman, Cornel West Struggles in the Promised

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Jackson, the Anti-Defamation League, Ed Koch, Professors Leonard Jeffries and
Michael Levin, and Ministers Louis Farrakhan and Khalid Muhammad. We tried
to speak the truth and whatever else happened to be on our minds, and several of
these exchanges remain vivid in my memory:
A Jewish woman arrived at one of our sessions complaining that a Black cab
driver called her a "kike" when he thought her tip inadequate. To which one of
the Black woman countered, "That's nothing! I can't get a cab to pick me up at
all."
Another time, a Black woman castigated all white women who date Black
men, but especially Jewish women who do so.
"If whites are dating Blacks, why make it a. Jewish issue?" asked one of the
Jews.
"Because," said the Black woman, "50 percent of the white partners of Blacks
are Jews, and almost all those partners are Jewish women dating Black men."
"Well then," said the Jewish member, "maybe this proves that Jews, more
than other whites, see Black people as human beings worthy of love. Tell me
what's so bad about that?"
The sisters told us. White Jewish women siphon off educated, eligible African
Americans—the most likely partners for middle-class Black women whose dating
options are already severely limited by an ever-dwindling pool of Black males.
The facts were sobering: homicide is the leading cause of death among young
African American men; Black men die ten times more often than whites of hypertension
disease; men in Harlem are less likely to survive to age 40 than men in
Bangladesh. Suicide, drug addiction, AIDS, and imprisonment account for another
large drain; the male prison population has grown by 80 percent since 1970
and now there are more college age Black men in prison or on parole than in college.
More Black men than women drop out of school which explains why at
UCLA, for instance, there are twice as many Black female as male students. Add
to all this the average rate of homosexuality and one can see why marriageable,
healthy, educated Black males are called an endangered species—and why Black
women might be indignant when such a man is claimed by a white woman.
The Jewish women understood.
In another discussion, one Jew said she resented Black women's reluctance to
join integrated feminist organizations. The African Americans replied that groups
like the National Organization for Women and the National Women's Political
Caucus are dominated by whites with an elitist agenda. The Jewish women insisted
that would cease to be the case only if Black women joined up and altered the
agenda from within. After several rounds of this chicken-ancl-egg argument, the
group declared a draw.
In the summer of '84, our meeting fell on the night after Geraldine Ferraro
made history at the Democratic Convention. Bubbling with enthusiasm, we
toasted Gerry as we chewed over her acceptance speech and reviewed the prospects