GrindingAheadwith the PeaceProcess An EDITORIAL
$3.00 September 1995 CSJO25thAnnualConference
By PAUL G. SHANE
EricDysonon MalcolmX By PAULROBESON, JR. o
Anne Frank Remembered: A Review By GERALD STILLMAN AnruFrar*, May,1940
DaCapo Holocaust Film Sephardic Summers TwoPoems
Storyby JOYCE NORRIS CHARTOR Poemby ROBERTGHIRADELLA Poembv ANITA BLUESTONE By MENKE KATZ
nccd to countcr them in the debate. Mcanwhilc in a more welcome and rclatcd dcvelopment, the Forward reptrrtcd,also on July 2I, that more than 600 rabbis signed a letter to Congress rcqucstingcontinuedAmerican support for the peaceprocess.Representingthe Orthodox, Conservative, Reform and Rcconstructionistmovements,the rabbis urged renewal of "the Middle East Pcace Facilitation Act, which waives restrictions" on funding of the PLO. The Act was to expire in mid-August. Cutbacks
funding from the United Way. Staff hasbeencut and fewer families will be served. A similar situation exists in New Haven, Stamford and Bridgeport, reported the Conn. Jewish Ledger July 14. Directors of Jewish Family Services are looking into seeking more contributions from adult children of elderly clients and higher fees from those who can afford to pay. Jared Rolsky, executive director of JFS in New Haven, said, "There are going to be people who are going to go without services.It is not the most humane way to function as a society. People without money are given a lower priority than they were five years ago." Not everyoneis taking the cuts lying down. Two Conservative rabbis from Conn.wentto Washingtonto meetwith Sen. Joseph Lieberrnan (D-CT) and Sen. Arlen Spector (R-PA) and Reps. Henry Waxman (D-CA) and Jerry Nadler (D-NY). As reported in the JewishLedger July 21, in addition to budget cuts they discussedimmigration, welfare, lhe environment, gun control, abortion and school prayer. Rabbi Jon-JayTilsen of Beth El-Keser Israel in New Haven, speakingof the cuts,said,"The money will be diverted to fund tax cuts for the wealthy. This is contrary to the ethical vision of our Torah." Rabbi Richard Plavin of Temple Beth Sholom in Manchestersaid, "As Jews we have to be sensitiveto protect the stranger, to protect the people in society that are least protected." The two were in Washington as part of a lobbying delegationfrom theConservativemovement'sRabbinical Assembly.Addressingthe proposed Constitutional amendment to allow prayer in public schools, Tilsen said, "While we support prayer - at least three times aday and preferably with a minyan - we opposea Constitutional amendmentto allow or mandateorganized prayer in public schools."
State and Federal budget cutbacks havealreadyhurt programsfor the poor and more is yet to comc. "Congresshas already resolved to cut $983 billion from the Housing and Urban Development and the Health and Human Servicesbudgetsover the next sevenyears" (Conn.Jewish Ledger, July l4). These cuts will also hit the Jewish poor. At the same time Jewish charities are reporting decreasingcontributions. United Jewish Appeal-Federationof JewishPhilanthropiesof New York, for example,reportedraising $190 million for theyear endingJune30, down 26.97o from 1991. Money they spent on the poor dropped32Vofrom 1991 to 1994. Fundsraisedin 1991,the peak year of Operation Exodus, were 37Vo higher than today,grantswere 4TVohigherand spending on local needs was almost 5ATohigher.Partly, this may be due to a loss in Jewishpopulation in New York. Jeffrey Solomon, chief operating officer for program servicesat UJA-Federation, estimatesabout 450,000 "upper-middle-classJews" have left New York in the past 15 years. The cuts are having effects in other cities, too. In Hartford, CT, the Jewish Fcderationhad a shortfall of $500,000 in its campaign,which meansaL5Vocut lirr its agencies.JewishFamily Service ol' I-lartfordalso reported a l3%ocut in July 27 30
JosnpuDIMow JEWISH CUNREN'I"S
BooK REVIEWS Eric Dysonon MalcolmX By PAUL ROBESON, uIR. Making Malcolm,The Myth and Meaning of Malcolm X,by Michael Eric Dyson. Oxford Univ. Press, N.Y., 1995,215 pages,indexed,$19.95. rI-!HIS book by Eric Dyson, Professor |' of Communication and Director of the Institute of African-American Researchat the University of North Carolina, is long on the myth of Malcolm but shorton his meaning.Prof. Dyson's criticism lacks focus, while his analysis is too often restrictedto thc prescntation of significantissueswithout adcquateexplanation. In my view, the centralproblem with Making Malcolm lies in il.snarrow cmphasis on Malcolm X as an icon for young African-American malcs. As a result, such important considcrations as Malcolm's changingrelationshipto America's nationalculture,or thc significance of his evolution from racialism to humanism, ?re essentially ignored. From the standpoint of BlackJcwish relations, for example, Malcolm's embraceof humanism marked the end of an extraordinary journey from hostility to Jews as whites to acccptanceof Jews as fellow human bel ngs. I'AUL Rogesox, JR. is the author of I'aul Robeson, Jr. Speaks to America (llutgers Univ. Press, New Brunswick, l\i.1,1993),reviewed here in Oct., 1993. ,\ince Nov., 1981, he has appearedhere x'ith l0 reviews and articles. S r:tvfE MB E R , 1995
On the other hand, the book is of interest precisely because its shortcomings illuminate the current ideological priorities of a significant segment of middle-classAfrican-Americans,not just thoseof the ghetto poor. The Black nationalist slant of these priorities fuels angeragainstall whites without distinction,and this generalized hostility provides a convenient cloak for specifichostility towardJews. Prof. Dyson's prcfacc prcviews his gcncralfailurc to providc an in-depth cxplorationof thc main controvcrsies sur r oundinglhe com plcx legacy of M alcolm X. This opcningessay,t it led "Tcaching M alcolm , " cent er son t he story of how four Black male st.udents tyrannizcdhis Malcolm X seminarat Br own Univcr sit y. Not only does Dyson avoid cxplaining why he permittcd this to occur, but he also neglccts to offer any challenge to his sl.udcnl.s'"narrowly conceived and troublingvisionof authenticracialdiscoursc." Instead, he focuses on the "racial reasoning"of Black malesand on Malcolm's "moral authority" among them. Thus there is a hollow ring to Prof. Dyson's avowal that he is dctermined "to make Malcolm avaiiable to the wider audiencethat he deserves without making him a puppet for mainstreampurposes,and without freighting him with the early bigotries and blindnesseshe grew to discard." The Preface is followed by an introductory chapter titled "Meeting Mal-
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colm," in which Prof. Dyson attempts to define Malcolm as a political personality. Regrettably,he confines himself almost entirely to well-known generalities,and thenconcludesthat the "two Malcolms" (the Black nationalist and the human righs advocate) "need nol be fracturedby th.echoice betweenseeking an empowering racial identity and linking ourselvesto the truth no matter what it looks like." This formulation blurs the fundamental difference betweenMalcolm's political andreligious principles before and after his break with the Nation of Islam - the break that causedthe Nation of Islam leadership to create the political climate for Malcolm's assassination.
The section begins with an exploration of Malcolm X: The Man and His Times, edited by John Henrik Clarke, which Prof. Dyson dismisses as "an exercise in hero worship and saint making." The evidence presented to substantiatethis statementis slim indeed:out of the sevenessaysdiscussed, three,by Dyson's own admission,includesignificantcriticismof Malcolm. Far more significant, however,is the fact that Prof. Dyson ignoresthe entire second half of Prof. Clarke's book, which focuses effectively on Malcolm's political transformation during the last four years of his life ("Dialogues with Malcolm X," "Malcolm X Abroad," and "Malcolm X in His Own Words"). This omission Part I of the book is titled "Malcolm is a reflection of Dyson's unwillingX's IntellectualLegacy" but confincs ness to confront.the core of Malcolm its discussion to what Prof. Dyson X's legacy- Malcolm's unequivocal claims is "a critical reading" of othcr rejection of the Nation of Islam's rabooks about Malcolm. The style is one cial exclusivenessand its cult-like rewhich reports what others have said ligious and organizational principles, rat.herftan one which criticizes and and his later trenchantcritique of toanalyzeswhat Malcolm himself said. day's Black nationalistideology. Prof. Dyson dismisses a primary Prof. Dyson goes on to discussnine source of Malcolm's thinking - The books about Malcolm X by authors Autobiography of MalcolmX - on fte r a n g i n g f r o m B l a c k n a t i o n a l i s t s questionablegrounds that it. "reflecb through a Trotskyist white radical to both Malcolm's need to shapehis per- white historians and psychobiograsonal history for public racial edifica- phers. Dyson fails to use them as intion. . . and co-author Alex Haley's strumentsin a critical examination of political biases and ideological pur- Malcolm's evolving thought.Even his poses." Regardlessof the validity of departuresfrom the review style have this criticism, it is in theAntobiography more to do with his own opinions than that one finds someof Malcolm's most with Malcolm's, and these are often presentedin an inadequateand contrainsightful comments. Forexample,on p.373 Malcolm says: dicatory manner. "I've had enough of someone else's For example, on p. 43 we find a propaganda.. . .I'm a humanbeing first superficial comparison of King and and foremost,and as such I'm for who- Malcolm based on crudely assigned ever and whatever benefits humanity constituencies:". . . For King, a guiltas a wlwle." This priority placeshuman laden, upwardly mobile, and ever-exidentification above racfal identifica- panding black middle class; for Maltion and thus places Black-white rela- colm, an ever-widening,trouble-prone, tions in generaland Black-Jewishrela- and rigidly oppressed black ghetto tions in particular on common human p o o r." Y et an i nsi ghtful comment, ground. about"King's challengeto capitalism, 32
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a chal l enge that di st inguishedKing l'rom Malcolm for most.of Malcolrn's career" appearson p. 45. Or on p. 46 there is an unexplained rcferenceto a clash between the religious rhetoric used by Malcolm and King: "Malcolm's black Islamic moral criticism poseda significantchallenge to its black Christiancounterpart.. . ." Here Prof. Dyson fails to point out,the l'undamentaldifferencebetweenthe Islamic religion, which over a million African-American Muslims practice, andtheNation of Islam'sreligiouscultism, which hasa far smallernumberof adherents.Moreover, Dyson does not inform the reader that Malcolm's political transformationwas rooted in his complex religious conversionfrom t.he Nation of Islam to the Sunni Muslim religion, which is the Islamic religious branchhaving the greatestcomparibility with King's SouthernBlack Christian tradition.
preciation for Al'rican-Amcricancult ur e. I n iB cxt r cm c cxpr cssion,however , liber al int cgr at ionistidcology acquir esa bland assim i- lat ionist cm phasis. " Liberalsare not intcgrationists;thcy are assimilationists(monoculturali sts) who insistthatAfrican-Amcricansmust abandont heirdist inctcult ur cand l'ully adopt"Am er ican" ( i. e. ,Anglo- Saxon) culture.It is progressives and lcft-wing radicalswho are integrationist.s, sincc t hey believein a m ult icult ur alst x; ict y in which distinct ethnic groups prcserve their own cultures but forrn a cohesiveteam.PureBlack nationalisus are separatists.When Malcolm brokc with theNation of Islam,he abandoncd separatismand moved toward intcgrat ionism . The only direct definition of Black nationalism Prof. Dyson offers is the combinationof: l) "the denialof whitc participation in radical civil rights organizations,"2) "the advocacy.. . of Part II is titled "Malcolm X in Con- armed self-defense,"3) "the bold artemporarySociety,"and its centralideas ticulation of black theology," and 4) a r e p r e s e n t e d u n d e r t h e h e a d i n g "the revolutionary insurgenceplanned "Malcolm X and the Resurgenceof andpartially implementedby the Black Black Nationalism." It is here that Prof. Panthers."These are more the characDyson setsout to "explore Malcolm's teristicsof Black Poweradherentsthan brandof black nationalismwhile evalu- of Black nationalists,and the lack of ating his useas a powerful icon in con- distinction betweenthe two invites the temporaryblack nat.ionalism." presentBlack nationalistmovementto The soundstart of this exploration imitate past Black Power groups. lhe statement that "black nationalism "Malcolm's brand of Black nat.ionwas coercedfrom the beginning into a alism" is then inadequatelydescribed parasitic relationshipto American cul- as a combination of attributes associ[ure" - is vitiated by the absenceof ated with the Nation of Islam and thc any explanatorycommentsandan inad- Black Panthers:1) "Malcolm's defiant cquatecomparativedefinition of Black expressionof black rage,"2) "his withnationalism: ering indictmentsof the limitationsof "Black nationalismis often contrasted black bourgeoisliberalism,"3) "an alto liberal integrationist ideology. Lib- ternative black spirituality and rclicral integrationistsbelieve that the goal gious worldview that providcd hokl of African-American strugglesfor lib- relief to the ethic of love advocatcrlirr cration ought to be the inclusion of black Christian conceptionsol' sociul blacks in the larger compassof Ameri- protest,"and4) his appealto "thc sr:lrclr cansocial,political, andeconomicprivi- f or a secur eand em powcr ing r aciul lcge, while maintaininga distinct ap- ident it y. " This m ix of pust I |lack r ur S TIP TE MB E1995 R,
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tionalist and Black Power characteristics appeals to the present Black nationalistmovement. As a result, the reality of two different Malcolms - the one before his departurefrom the Nation of Islam and the one after - is concealed by the myth of a Malcolm who is a mix of Minister Farrakhanand Huey Newton. The centralpoint of Malcolm's nationalism is lost: his advance from the searchfor a racial (i.e., color) identity to the questfor an ethnic (i.e.,cultural) identity. It was this advancethat enabled him to embrace the priority of human identification and to find common humanist ground with the Rcv. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Paul Robeson. Yet a few pages later Prof. Dyson offers a powerful insight that almost redeemshis entirechapterin the spacc of a singlepage.He brilliantly cxposcs a fundamentalflaw in contemporary Bl ac k nat ionalis tid c o l o g y :" T h c l ru th i s th at blac k nat io n a l i s trh c to ri c h a s helpedan expandingblack middlc class gain increasedmatcrialcomfort, whilc . . . the working classand working poor continue to toil in the aftcrmath of nationalism'sunrealizedpolitical promise. . . . The greatest irony of contemporary black nationalism may be its use by members of the black middle class. to consolidatetheir interests at the expense of workingclass and poor blacks. By refusing to take classseriously . . . many nationalists discard a crucial analytical tool in exploring the causesof black racial and economic suffering." Next, Prof. Dyson uses a chapter to developtheconnectionbetweenthe new Black nationalismand Black youth in the ghetto.He rightly points out that the new rap culture and the current trends in Black film tap into "the cultural virtuesandvices"of young male members of "the so-calledunderclass."However, he fails to mention the fact that the 34
Black working class far outweighs the Black underclassin both numbersand cultural significance, despite the persistentmedia myth of a bipolar society made up mainly of a middle classand an underclass.An inflated "middle class" hides most of the real working c l a s s , a nd an arti fi ci al l y expanded "underclass" conceals a large part of the working poor. A full chapter is devoted to Spike Lee's film Malcolm X, which is describedas"a richly texturedand subtly nuancedevocationof the life andtimes of a supremelyAmerican paradox:a onctimeracialparticularistwhosefame hasbccnshapedto display his belared, if confusing, universal appeal.Lee's Malcolm is inevitably a creation of Lce's own oversizeambitions.. . . One might also quibble about. Lee's attcmpt to. . . get black youth to identify with the redemptive messageof Ma l c o l m ' s raci al edi fi cati on." Thi s approachis implicitly critical of Lee 's opcn championing of the latter-day h u ma n i st Mal col m over the earl i er "racial particularist" who is more attractive to the hip-hop generation.Finally, it is disturbingto encounterProf. Dyson's gratuitous referencesto uns u b s t a n t i a t e dr u m o r s a b o u t M a l colm's sexualityand integrity. Prof. Dyson's last chapter, titled "U sing Malcolm," is one of the leastpersuasive.Claiming to presenta radical democraticperspectivewhich deepens "Malcolm's and Martin's criticismsof capitalism and their leanings toward radical democracy," Dyson merely recycles decades-oldeconomicproposals supportedby the traditional Americ a n c o a l i ti on of l eft-w i ng l i beral s, progressives,and left-wing radicals: " E q u i tabl e di stri buti on of w eal th through progressive taxation and the increasedfinancialresponsibilityof the truly wealthy; restructuring of social opportunitiesfor the neediestthrough
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public policy and direct political inter- sive pr ior it y which t ot lay'sBlack navcntion; the adoption of political and t ionalismplaccson r aciol issucsim social policies that benefit all Ameri- pedeseffectivc mobiI iz.ation ol' B lacks canswhile addressingthe specificneeds as an et hnicBr oupar <lund cnr cialccoof blacks,suchasuniversalhealthcare." nom ic issues.This is cspccillly lr uc Omitted from this list are race-based becausethe race issuc obscurt:stltc affirmative action and recognition of undeniablefact that thc cconorrricinAfrican-Americanculture, which par- terestsof the Black working clussittttl tially conform to Black nationalist de- poor.clashfundamentalI y_wi th tltc.c.comands for "reparations" and are justi- nomic interest.sof the Black nrirltllc fied by many liberals as remedies for class. pastdiscrimination.Prof. Dyson might have pointed out a significant contra- Prof. Dyson's analysisof two usesof diction here. The relative ineffective- collective memory follows. Thc proness,unpopularityand legal-moralvul- gressive approach "sees the past as a nerability of affirmative action pro- socialconstructionshapedby thc congrams, as well as the inequities that cerns and needs of the prescnt.";in accompanythem,all stemfrom a single other words, the ideas of the prcscnt fundamentalflaw: they are designedto are usedto constructthe past.This, hc remedy past, rather than present, dis- points out, is the insidioustechniquc crimination. used by USA popular culture in its This underlying concept is highly attempt to control African-American disadvantageousto Blacks for two collective memory by controlling Afmain reasons:First, it is open to chal- rican-Americanhistoryandthe imagcs lenge on the grounds that past institu- of the leading African-Americanhistional discriminationwas legally abol- torical figures. Dyson defines the opished30 yearsago and requiresno fur- posite, conservative approach as onc ther legal Federally enforced remedy. using the ideasof the pastto construct Second,and most important,it falsely the present, thus preserving an ideoquo rootedin America's implies the absenceof present covert logical stat.us institutionaldiscrimination.lnthesecir- racist past. Here Dyson might have the interest.s cumstances of the vastma- added the proposition that this same jority of African-Amcricanswould be conservativeapproachhaspreventeda bestservedby the uncquivocalsubsti- civil rights leadershiplimited by the tution of affirmative action programs ideology of the civil rights movement designedto remedypresentdiscrimina- from mounting a current, quite differtion for thosedesigncdto rcmcdy past ent, struggle for equal opportunity. The chapter concludeswith an exdiscrimination.This would rcquiregivi ng up the noti on o f "r cpar at ions, " tendeddiscussionadvancingthe queswhich, paradoxically,is favorcd in dif- tionablenotion thatoneof thebestuscs fcrent ways by both libcrals and Black of Malcolm's memory is as a primary nationalists. tool in criticizing PresidentClinton. In this context,Prof. Dyson's mini- According to Prof. Dyson, Clinton mal united-front program for an effec- "does more harm to black folk than an tive Black-white coalition on critical explicitenem y. "This claim is t hcn r ceconomicissueswould be unassailable, inforced by a quotation from Malc<llm but it has little to do with a program for to the effect that "the real criminal is "radical democracy" or with any rea- the white man who posesasa libcralsonableinterpretationof Malcolm X's the political hypocrite." It appcarsto political legacy. Moreover, the exclu- me that.all such "Clinton is thc main SIIPTEMBER, 1995
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enemy" arguments have been fatally underminedby the victory of the right wing of the Republican Party in the Nov., 1994Congressionalelections,and by the OklahomaCity bombing. A short "Afterword" praises Malthinkcolm's insistenceon independent ing and extols his "broad, humanevision." Here there is considerableirony in the fact that it is precisely Malcolm the independenthumanistwho hasbccn consi stentl y dow nplayed t hr oughout Prof. Dyson's text. But for me lhc most distastefulaspectsof his closing statcment are its essentiallyuncritical dcfenseof the deeplyflawcd hip-hopculture,andi ts mi sgui de dcom plaintabout rancorousB lack-on-Blackcril.icism"at the hi ghcst l evcl s of int cllcct ualand organizal.ional endcavor."Actually,[hc problem at.thesc"highcst lcvels" is thc studied absenceof criticism. Thc cndorsementsby Cornel Wcst, Angcla D avi s, the R ev. Jes seJackson,Scn. Carol Mosely-Braun and Chuck D of "Public Enemy" on the cover of Prof. D yson' s book refl e ct t he uncr it ical mutual adulationof a clubby group of politiciansandshrill Black intellectuals, rappers. On his part,Prof. Dyson, in my view, has shamefully panderedto the current adherentsof Black nationalismby failing to criticize their fundamentalbelief that the issueof race always transcends all other issues,and that racial identity always transcendscultural and human identities. Although he is appropriately critical of the male-centeredand openly anti-female aspects of today's Black nati onal i st i deol ogy t hr oughout his book, Prof. Dyson backs away from a broad critique of the self-defeatingtenet that, ideologically speaking,"race is not only everything; it is the only thing." I Have you renewedyour sub?
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HOW DANES SAVED JEWS IN 1940s ,I'1lE Power of Conscience: The I DanishResistance and the Rescueof theJews is a 55-minutefilm on VCR tape, producedby Alexandra Moltke Isles and Danmarks Radio.Ten participantsin this rescuc opcration are interviewed in t he f ilm . During the Nazi occupation of Dcnm ar k,which beganon Apr il9, 1940,King ChristianX maintained his daily habit of riding on horseback throughlhe streetsof Copenhagen.His rides becamea symbol of nationalunity andtheKing stood firm in his convictionsagainstthe Nazisin protectionof DanishJews. In Oct., 1943,when the Gestapo beganto round up DanishJews for deportation,Danishc itizensjoined togetherin resistanceand createda rcscuenetwork which successfully concealed and then transported 7,200 Danish Jews to safety in Sweden.This mostremarkablefeat savcdalmost 95Voof their Jewish population- less than 500 Jews were deportedto Theresienstadtin Czechoslovakia,from which they were brought out by the Swedish Rcd Cr ossin Apr il, 1945. The Gestapo and the military became more aggressivein their pursuit; Hitler and Himmler were cnraged by the small number of Jews t.hatwere captured.But the Jews and t.heresistancewon out. The real moral victory lay in thc help that the Danishpeople spontaneouslyoffered to their countrymen who were in danger. WNET rebroadcastThe Power of ConscienceJuly6 in New York. It should be shown all over thc USA - and elsewhere. FREDROSgtttnnt,
JewtsuCuxnl'x'tr