The Future of the Race

The Future of the Race, by Henry Louis Gates, Jr., and Cornel West. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1996. 1% pp. $21.00, cloth. Reviewed by Larry L. Rowley, University of Virginia.

With this contemporary analysis of W. E. B. DuBois's famous 1903 essay, "The Talented Tenth," two of Harvard University's premier professors of African American studies provide a timely testament to the intellectual legacy of a legendary scholar. They also provide a valuable service to those with vested interests in the startling class differentials extant within the African American community today. The purpose of this work, in the authors' words, is to "think through and critique DuBois's challenge of commitment to service that the formally educated owe to all those who have not benefitted from the expanded opportunities afforded by the gains in civil rights ... and its concomitant affirmative action" (pp. xii-xiii). Having said that, Gates and West do not proceed to examine DuBois's essay directly. Instead, they choose to delineate DuBois's themes by way of autobiography, policy analysis, and critical examination of the challenges they and other African American intellectuals face as the contemporary embodiment of the DuBoisian ideal. The book's central theme is developed around Gates and West's analysis of this difficult responsibility. The result is an effective critique of DuBois's thought and a critical examination of the role formally educated Blacks must play in alleviating the suffering of those of their people who have been shut out of the American dream.

The format of the book is simple and without pretense. It opens with a preface that both explains the authors' rationale for writing it and outlines their political positions regarding the issues that have contributed to Black people's present demise, specifically, the large numbers of African Americans finding themselves at or beneath the economic poverty line. Gates and West are unequivocal in expressing their frustration with and opposition to present-day conservative public policy initiatives that seek to dismantle affirmative action and other social programs geared toward breaking the cycle of poverty. Likewise, they make clear...