It is a truly new dawn: Blacks and the politics of the postmodern age

Abstract

This interpretive essay uses insights from cultural and postmodern theory, literature, history, and economics, interspersed with personal observations and narrative, to argue that the present historical ‘moment’ is ushering in a qualitatively new era for blacks. Culturally, American society is more truly inclusive of the black presence and interests—symbolized by the ‘arrival’ of Toni Morrison; the hegemony of the Westernized worldviews is weakened, creating a space for legitimate claims of difference to be actualized. While the moment is opportune for attempting to create a “cooperatively diverse” world, the altered socio-economic configuration of the new global order makes it progressively difficult for the old politics of pluralism to persist. In this essay, I argue that the emerging global order requires a shift to a new politics of recognition and a more equitable political partnership. In the main, the task is to fashion those accommodations that will enable blacks and whites (and additional Other(s)) to construct a new social and economic agenda from this new interdependence.