John H. McWhorter: Why The National Review Would Have Loved Zora Neale Hurston
[John H. McWhorter, Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute, writes and comments extensively on race, ethnicity and cultural issues for the Manhattan Institute. He also writes a regular column in the New York Sun.]
The drifting changes in the links between cultural alignments and political ones over time are always interesting, such as the fact that Republicans were once more interested in black rights than Democrats. It’s equally true in black history. Culturally, Booker T. Washington was much more of what is currently recognized as “culturally black” than W.E.B. DuBois, as were the legions of sharecroppers and urban poor moved by Washington’s example more than DuBois’ (DuBois’ picture rarely hung on walls).
Another resonant example of how contingent the connections between cultural and political alignments always are is author Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960). Celebrated today for her documentation of rural black folklore and her explorations of the black female condition in, especially, her tour de force novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, Hurston the actual person would be as much at home on Fox News as on National Public Radio.
She was, quite simply, what is known today as a black conservative, as I write about in this piece for City Journal. It’s a facet of hers that her fan base has not always been comfortable with. After all, she seemed so, well, black! And loveable and warm, with the dusty fieldtrips down South and the open use of what we now call Ebonics. How could she be a conservative?!?
It’s interesting imagining her alive today and asked by African-American Studies departments to give talks. There she’d be at the Thai restaurant with six or seven faculty members before her lecture. When she dismissed reparations, maybe that’d go by--few today consider it a serious possibility anyway. But laughter would get ever more nervous as she started knocking Affirmative Action, dismissing the idea that a black person should derive pride from the accomplishments of black people other than himself (e.g. “I’m proud watching Obama standing up there”) and chuckling at the idea that black people should think of the experience of racism as a facet of black identity--which would inform her take on the Gates affair of late...
Read entire article at The New Republic
The drifting changes in the links between cultural alignments and political ones over time are always interesting, such as the fact that Republicans were once more interested in black rights than Democrats. It’s equally true in black history. Culturally, Booker T. Washington was much more of what is currently recognized as “culturally black” than W.E.B. DuBois, as were the legions of sharecroppers and urban poor moved by Washington’s example more than DuBois’ (DuBois’ picture rarely hung on walls).
Another resonant example of how contingent the connections between cultural and political alignments always are is author Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960). Celebrated today for her documentation of rural black folklore and her explorations of the black female condition in, especially, her tour de force novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, Hurston the actual person would be as much at home on Fox News as on National Public Radio.
She was, quite simply, what is known today as a black conservative, as I write about in this piece for City Journal. It’s a facet of hers that her fan base has not always been comfortable with. After all, she seemed so, well, black! And loveable and warm, with the dusty fieldtrips down South and the open use of what we now call Ebonics. How could she be a conservative?!?
It’s interesting imagining her alive today and asked by African-American Studies departments to give talks. There she’d be at the Thai restaurant with six or seven faculty members before her lecture. When she dismissed reparations, maybe that’d go by--few today consider it a serious possibility anyway. But laughter would get ever more nervous as she started knocking Affirmative Action, dismissing the idea that a black person should derive pride from the accomplishments of black people other than himself (e.g. “I’m proud watching Obama standing up there”) and chuckling at the idea that black people should think of the experience of racism as a facet of black identity--which would inform her take on the Gates affair of late...