The Rise of Black Intellectual History

By Chidike Okeem

Book Review

While the physical prowess of African people is much lauded in the Western world, many still deem the idea of black thought as patently oxymoronic. The concept of black people thinking in private and public—and doing so in ways that are meaningful enough to be documented—is often considered a fantastical thought of puerile racial optimism. New Perspectives on the Black Intellectual Tradition, edited by Keisha N. Blain, Christopher Cameron, and Ashley D. Farmer, scotches this mendacious narrative with an applause-worthy collection of essays that meticulously examine varied aspects of the vast black intellectual tradition across the globe. The authors of the essays show that black thought is not a utopian figment of the feverish Afrocentric imagination; it is a verifiable reality with which sober-minded people must reckon.

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From Marxist to Black Conservative

By Chidike Okeem

Book Review

George S. Schuyler (1895–1977) is one of the most consequential black conservative columnists in American history. His autobiography Black and Conservative, published in 1966, sketches the voyage of his life. It explores his journey from being the son of a head chef, his time in the military, to his eventual days as a conservative columnist—a drastic change from his quondam Marxism. Although the book becomes tremendously fascinating when the text centers around the development of Schuyler’s philosophical and political views, the rest of the narrative is stultifying. The details of his life are of less interest than the ideas that life produced. One can find the liveliest prose when Schuyler quotes his own political columns. Despite being a celebrated writer with great wit, his life story, as presented, simply does not translate into a compelling read.

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Donald Trump being elected as the 45th President of the United States is one of the most monumental calamities in modern world history. The pretense that Trump — despite being the next Leader of the Free World and Commander-in-Chief of the world’s foremost military — is powerless due to “checks and balances” is wholly insufferable. To hold this absurdist position is to willfully ignore the lion’s share of the American historical record. Donald Trump’s presidency, whether people like it or not, has opened the gates of Hades. White supremacist ideology is ascendant worldwide, and a Donald Trump presidency will likely be some of the darkest years in world history.

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A Partial Introduction to Black Conservatism

By Chidike Okeem

Book Review

Black Conservatism, a collection edited by Peter Eisenstadt, is an introduction to the lives of lesser-known figures who can be categorized as some strain of black conservative. When assessed as singular pieces, the essays are elegant and informative, which is unsurprising given that they are written by experts in their fields; however, the collection is hampered by its grievous inattention to some of the most important figures in the history of black conservatism.

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Are Police Officers Gangsters?

By Chidike Okeem

Perhaps the most insufferable chant that erupts whenever a police officer is caught red-handed in murderous violence or malpractice of any stripe is: “All Police Officers Aren’t Bad!” Curiously, however, we never hear similar arguments about black people whenever a black criminal captures the interest of the national media. Lamentably, black criminals are treated as ambassadors of black culture and are used as justifications for the existence and continuation of abusive policing. Despite the protestations of many who claim that cops face a barrage of calumny and an insurmountable degree of abuse from unappreciative citizens, there is no problem of reasonable people believing that all police officers are evil. There is, however, a problem of many people failing to condemn bad police officers, even when they are caught engaging in the most reprehensible and immoral behavior. There is a failure of people to recognize the insidious culture of the blue wall of silence—the idea that cops are not supposed to report their fellow officers when they see bad behavior.

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