Dark Thoughts: Race and the Eclipse of Society

344 Pages·2002·9.766 MB·English

by  Charles Lemert

ADVANCE PRAISE FOR DARK THOUGHTS:
·Charles Lemerfs Dark Thoughts is a dazzling tour de force that will unsettle you, astonish
you, make you think, and make you weep. Lemert boldly unravels and rethinks the perplex
ities surrounding what race, color, gender, and identity are, are not, and might be construed
to be. Brilliant turns of thought and feelings, astonishing segues and juxtapositions, I came
away thrilled and inspired by someone who shows us what it is like to be fully human."
-Louise DeSalvo, author of Writing as a Way of Healing: How Telling Dur Stories Transforms
Our Lives
"Lemert makes the study of race central to the task of sociological theory. This innovative
book also grows from the work of Black feminist theory, insisting on the significance of
gender and sexuality, along with race, for thinking about the grand questions of sociologi
cal theory."
-Margaret L. Andersen, editor of Race, Class, Gender: An Anthology
"This challenging and intriguing collection of essays speaks to a range of contemporary
inequalities where race is a key ingredient. Drawing from key social thinkers and his own
life, Lemert helps readers see the light and dark within analytic categories and in the
process reminds us that solid social theory is rooted in the recognition of people's lived
experiences."
-Elizabeth Higginbotham, author of Too Much to Ask: Black Women in the Era of Integration
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Dark Thoughts
Race and the Eclipse
of Society
Charles Lemert
~l Routledge
i
~
Taylor & Francis Group
New York London
This page intentionally left blank
For my children,
Anna Julia, Noah, and Matthew-
but especially, in this time, Noah,
who holds the middle ground
An eclipse brightening the dark sky
Their times bent
To embrace tenderly,
Then part.
We remain,
In the spark
OJ times like these.
First published in 2002 by:
Routledge
29 West 35th Street
New York, NY 10001
Published in Great Britain by
Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane
London EC4P 4EE
This edition published 2012 by Routledge:
Routledge Routledge
Taylor & Francis Group Taylor & Francis Group
711 Third Avenue 2 Park Square, Milton Park
New York, NY 10017 Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group.
Copyright © 2002 by Routledge
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced
or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means,
now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording,
or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission
in writing from the publishers.
Permission to quote from Langston Hughes, "The Negro Speaks of Rivers" (from The Weary
Blues published by Alfred A. Knopf, 1928), has been kindly granted by Random House and
Harold Ober Associates.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Lemert, Charles C., 1937-
I
Dark thoughts : race and the eclipse of society by Charles Lemert.
p.em.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-415-93444-3 (he.) - ISBN 0-415-93445-1 (pbk.)
1. United States - Race relations. 2. United States - Race relations---Psychological
aspects. 3. Racism - United States. 4. United States - Social conditions - 1890-
I. Title.
E184.A1 L444 2002
305.8'00973-dc212002016561
Contents
Dark Days, September 11, 2001
Part I. The Beginnings of a Millennium, 1990s
One
if
The Comina My Last Born, April 8, 1998 19
The Eclipse of Society, 1901-2001 23
Two
Blood and Skin, 1999 45
Whose We? Dark Thoughts of the Universal Self, 1998 49
Three
A Call in the Mornina, 1988 75
The Rights and Justices of the Multicultural Panic, 1990s 79
Part II. The Last New Century, 1890s
Four
Calling out Father by Calling up His Mother, 1947 99
The Colored Woman's Office: Anna Julia Cooper, 1892 105
Five
Get on Home, 1949 137
Bad Dreams of Big Business: Charlotte Perkins Gilman, 1898 141
Six
if
All Kinds People Gettin' On, 1954 165
The Color Line: W.E.B. Du Bois, 1903 169
viii Contents
Part III. Between, Before, and Beyond, 1873-2020
Seven
When Good People Do Evil, 1989 193
The Queer Passing of Analytic Things: Nella Larsen, 1929 197
Eight
What Would Jesus Have Done? 1965 221
The Race of Time: Deconstruction, Du Bois, and Reconstruction,
1935-1873 223
Nine
Dreaming in the Dark, November 26, 1997 247
Justice in the Colonizer's Nightmare: Muhammad, Malcolm,
and Necessary Drag, 1965-2020 251
Ten
A Call in the Night, February 11, 2000 277
The Gospel According to Matt: Suicide and the Good of Society, 2000 281
Acknowledgments 297
Endnotes 299
Index 323
Dark Days, September 11, 2001
... April 15, 1865 ... September 24, 1869 ... May 18, 1896 .. .
June 28, 1914 ... October 23, 1929 ... December 7, 1941 .. .
February 21, 1965 ... December 25, 1979 ...
September 11, 2001 ...
The eclipse had been long coming. No one knew when or where the sleeping
forces began their slow, certain awakenings across the face of modern hope. To
a world long accustomed to the light of future things, the prospect of its loss
was the Unthinkable itself. In the realm of natural things, everyone knows that
according to ordained schedule the moon crosses the sun, darkening the world
for a time. But no one, save those who devoutly prayed for it, was prepared for
this dark day-a day when the most foreign of social things would slide into
place, cut off the light, then remain as the uncertain order of unknown days to.
come.
The day itself was bright as only a freshly chilled autumn sky can be. Trees
in the city parks and along the rivers winked of colors to come. What clouds
there were only sharpened the glisten. From the highest towers, the westerly
reaches beyond the motorways, shopping malls, and suburbs teased the inner
eye. Some of those near the top were logging on to a new day. Monday's fog
may have lifted before Tuesday's dawning of the days ahead before another
weekend. Some may have dreamed of fresh romance in the Delaware Water
Gap.
But this most American of urban vistas came, they knew, with a risk-one
they could not have known was already hurtling toward them. Who among
those who daily rode up to the top of the world could not have thought (at least
once) of the terror the towers invited by their very arrogance? Seconds-min
utes at most-remained before all reveries would be shattered beyond
repair-before this improbable oak of modern vanity quaked and swayed.
The inferno rose to meet the brilliantly open sky. Some sent their parting
words. Some-fewer still, but many enough to chill the bones of those who
survived-measured the absurd ... whether to plunge into the wounded sky
or to hope against hope that man's mighty structure would hold firm against
the flames.
What passed through, or over, the minds of those who leapt? Might they
have seen, in the seconds before falling shuts down the last conscious thought,
visions of the dark days leading up to this one that would be forever theirs?