May 19, 2000

Taking Black Studies Back to the Streets

By JEFF SHARLET

In research and politics, scholars emphasize issues of poverty, criminal justice, and organizing communities

Making a prominent black intellectual the spokesman for something called Black America is a grand old tradition. A few black thinkers seek the position, but most have it thrust on them by journalists and politicians.

Booker T. Washington held the job once, James Baldwin took a turn, and Toni