Democracy Matters (26 page)

Kim Jong Il, 137

King, Martin Luther, Jr., 5, 19, 22, 57–58, 60, 79, 86, 92, 155, 157, 158, 159, 160, 162, 163, 164, 169, 215, 217

Kings, First Book of, 89

Kool Herc, 180

KRS-ONE, 85, 174, 180, 184

Ku Klux Klan, 53

Kurds, 136, 137, 142–43

Kushner, Tony, 102

labor movement, 34

Lakoff, George, 73

Lerner, Rabbi Michael, 112–13, 115, 121, 122, 197, 199

liberation theology movement, 166

Life of Poetry, The
(Rukeyser), 63, 78

Lincoln, Abraham, 49–50

Second Inaugural Address of, 50, 157–58

lobbyists, 35, 36, 122–24

“Lost Ones,” 182

Lott, Trent, 122

Lucian, 19

Luke, Gospel According to, 201–2

McKinney, Cynthia, 122

Madison, James, 211

Mahan, Alfred Thayer, 109

Majid, Anouar, 133, 140–41

Manifest Destiny, 14, 51, 91

Mansfield, Harvey, 192

Many Thousands Gone
(Baldwin), 84

Master P, 183

Matrix
films, 187

Mays, Benjamin E., 156–57
M’Baye, Mariétou, 131

media, 2, 28, 29, 203

ethical breakdown of, 36–37

Jewish influence on, 123–24

market-driven, 7, 36, 38

sentimental nihilism of, 36–39, 60–61, 195

sex and violence in, 175

Summers-West encounter in, 194–96, 197

Web coverage in, 37

youth culture and, 175–76, 187–88

Melville, Herman, 22, 25, 48–49, 67, 68, 86–92, 94, 95–96

Meno
(Plato), 17, 208

Mernissi, Fatima, 133

Micah, Book of, 113, 114

Middle East, 10–12, 60, 101, 104–5, 107–43, 146

Arab regimes in, 10, 110, 111, 116, 128, 129, 141

oil reserves of, 109–10, 116, 117, 128, 141

origin of term, 109

secular nationalist movements in, 129, 135, 136–37, 143

see also
Islam; Israel

Milbank, John, 161, 162–63

militarism,
see
aggressive militarism

military-industrial complex, 57

military spending, 58–59

Miller, Arthur, 102

Million Man March, 197

mimes, 210

Mobley, Mamie Till, 20–21

Moby-Dick
(Melville), 48–49, 89–91, 96

Monoson, S. Sara, 209

Monroe Doctrine, 51–52

Moral Majority, 165, 166

Morrison, Toni, 22, 37–38, 67, 68, 79, 87, 93–101, 102

MoveOn, 178–79

Muhammad, Prophet, 19, 139, 140

Multilateral Development Banks, 59

Murdoch, Rupert, 124

Murray, Albert, 202

Nader, Ralph, 103, 193

Naipaul, V. S., 131

Nasser, Gamal, 116–17, 129

National Parenting Association, 187

National Public Radio, 187

Native Americans, 13, 40, 69, 73, 88, 104

expansionist subjugation of, 13, 14, 43, 44, 45, 50–51, 149

Manifest Destiny and, 91

voting rights of, 33

neo-soul movement, 183

New Jewish Agenda, 121

Nick News
, 187

Niebuhr, H. Richard, 145

Niebuhr, Reinhold, 211

nihilism, 16, 21, 25–62, 87, 88, 115, 142, 148, 159, 161, 162, 163, 167, 210, 218

evangelical, 30–31, 33, 60–61

market forces in, 27–29, 39–40, 78

in
Moby-Dick
, 48–49, 89–90, 96

paternalistic, 30, 31–36, 60–61

political, 27–40

racism and, 40–62

sentimental, 30, 36–39, 60–61, 195

of youth culture, 176–77

Nobody Knows My Name
(Baldwin), 79

No Name in the Street
(Baldwin), 1, 79

Notes on the State of Virginia
(Jefferson), 47

Ogletree, Charles, Jr., 195

oil, 109–10l, 116, 117, 128, 141

O’Neill, Eugene, 55, 67, 87

Orthodox Union, 123

Other America, The
(Harrington), 33

Ottoman empire, 8, 54, 109

Outkast, 179–80, 183

paideia
, 39, 41, 91

Palestinians, 10–11, 36, 85, 108–28, 137, 197

democratic leanings of, 142, 143

suicide bombers of, 10, 110, 113, 115, 116, 119

Paris, 180

Parker, Charlie, 85

parrhesia
, 16, 39, 209, 210, 211

Passion of the Christ, The
, 124, 169–71

Pass-the-Mic tours, 187

paternalistic nihilism, 30, 31–36, 60–61

Patriot Act, 6, 29, 202

Peretz, Martin, 123–24
Pericles, 42, 206

Perry, Imani, 183

Pfleger, Father Michael, 168

Pharrell, 183

Pierre
(Melville), 87–88

Place of Tolerance in Islam, The
(El-Fadl), 138

Plato, 16, 30, 201, 207, 208, 212–13

philosophy of, 209–11

“Plato, or the Philosopher” (Emerson), 212–13

Plato’s Democratic Entanglements
(Monoson), 209

Playing in the Dark
(Morrison), 95–96

political correctness, 7

political leaders, 2–3, 4, 12, 64–66

black, 65–66

disaffection engendered by, 64–65

marketing of, 25

nihilism of, 27–28

political nihilism, 27–40

Poor Righteous Teachers, 180

populism, 52, 53

Prince, 185

Princeton University, 193, 195, 198

progressivism, 52, 53

prophetic witness, 41, 49, 50, 55, 57, 62, 141, 213–18

and Constantinian vs. prophetic Christianity, 147–72, 215

and Constantinian vs. prophetic hip-hop, 182, 184–85

definition of, 114-15

of Judaism, 16, 17–19, 21, 112–15, 119, 121–22, 213–16

justice in, 17–19, 113–14, 214–15

Prophets in the Hood
(Perry), 183

Proverbs, Book of, 17

Psalms, Book of, 214

Public Enemy, 180

Pynchon, Thomas, 20, 102

Quintilian, 73

Race Matters
(West), 1–2, 26

racism, 1–2, 14, 15, 74, 87, 90–91, 164, 181, 196–97, 199, 216–17

Baldwin and, 78–86

Middle Eastern, 116

nihilism and, 40–62

Rainey, Ma, 20, 91–92

Rakim, 180

Ramadan, Tariq, 133

Randolph, A. Philip, 92

rap music, 173–74, 179–86

see also
hip-hop

Rauschenbusch, Walter, 153

Rawls, John, 138, 160, 161, 162, 163

Reagan, Ronald, 31, 165, 166–67

Reconstruction, 50

Red Record, A
(Wells-Barnett), 156

Republic
(Plato), 30, 207, 210–11

Republican Party, 2, 3, 4, 26, 32, 35, 36, 65, 164–65

evangelical nihilists in, 30–31

“Richard Wright’s Blues” (Ellison), 19

right wing, 9, 10, 37, 38, 123, 124

Christian evangelical, 2, 124, 165, 168

conservative rhetoric of, 73–74

religious, 66, 161, 165

robber barons, 51

Roman empire, 8, 10, 19, 42, 73, 211

Christianity in, 147–48, 150, 151, 159, 169–72, 214–15

Roosevelt, Franklin Delano, 33–34

Roosevelt, Theodore, 33

Rorty, Richard, 160–61, 162, 163

Rosenzweig, Franz, 107, 124–25

Rove, Karl, 32, 61

Rukeyser, Muriel, 63, 77, 78

Rushdie, Salman, 131

Saadawi, Nawal El, 133

Sagan, Eli, 206

Said, Edward, 107–8

Salih, Tayeb, 131

Samuel, First Book of, 18

Season of Migration to the North
(Talih), 131

Second Message of Islam, The
(Taha), 108, 140

secular liberalism, 159–61, 162, 163

secular nationalism, 129, 135, 136–37, 143

segregation, racial, 53, 58, 157

self-medication, 176

“Self-Reliance” (Emerson), 69–70

sentimental nihilism, 30, 36–39, 60–61, 195
September 11 terrorist attacks, 6–7, 8–10, 12–13, 20, 21, 40, 61, 202

Shadow and Act
(Ellison), 79

Shakur, Tupac, 67, 181

Shapiro, Harold, 195

Sharon, Ariel, 115, 197

Sharpton, Al, 193

Shaw, Lemuel, 91

Simmons, Russell, 184

Simple Past, The
(Chraibi), 131

Sims, Thomas, 91

Sketches of My Culture
(West), 185–86

slavery, 14, 37–38, 40, 42–44, 45, 48, 69, 88, 92–93, 149, 157

emancipation of, 49–50, 73

in Massachusetts, 43–44, 91

Smiley, Tavis, 187, 188, 195

Smith, Bessie, 20, 91–92, 217

Smith, J. Alfred, 168

Snoop Dogg, 181

Social Gospel movement, 153

Socrates, 15, 16–17, 30, 79, 201, 204, 207, 208, 212–13, 217

Socratic questioning, 16–17, 21, 30, 31, 41, 49, 50, 55, 57, 62, 80, 81–82, 118, 141, 158, 204, 207, 208–18

Solon, 205–6

Song of Solomon
(Morrison), 97–98

Sontag, Susan, 102

Sophists, 16, 17, 30, 207–8

Sophron, 210

Soroush, Abdokarim, 133

Souls of Black Folk, The
(Du Bois), 78

Soviet Union, 8, 55, 56, 109, 116, 129, 166

Staub, Michael C., 119–20

Stein, Gertrude, 77, 78

Stoics, 18

Stout, Jeffrey, 159, 163

Street Knowledge
(West), 185–86

Sulzberger family, 124

Summers, Lawrence,
see
Harvard University, Summers-West encounter at Supreme Court, U.S., 6, 45

Taha, Mahmoud Mohamed, 108, 133, 140

Taking Parenting Public
(Hewlett and West), 187

Tanenhaus, Sam, 198

terrorism, 5, 11, 26, 29, 204

American, against blacks, 20–21, 51, 156

of Palestinian suicide bombers, 10, 110, 113, 115, 116, 119

September 11, 6–7, 8–10, 12–13, 20, 21, 40, 61, 202

Theodosius I, emperor of Rome, 147

Thirst
(O’Neill), 87

Thrasymachus, 30, 207

Thucydides, 42, 211

Thurman, Howard, 145, 157

Tikkun
, 112, 121

Tilghman, Shirley, 195

Till, Emmett, 20–21

Tocqueville, Alexis de, 25–26, 45–46, 192

Tom Joyner Morning Show
, 188

Torn at the Roots: The Crisis of Jewish Liberalism in Postwar America
(Staub), 119–20

trade unionism, 40, 52–53, 152

tragicomic hope, 21, 41, 49, 50, 57, 79, 92, 141, 216–18

blues in, 16, 19–21, 216

“True Dat,” 179–80

Turkey, 56, 136–37, 142–43

Twain, Mark, 20, 67

Unger, Roberto Mangabeira, 63

Union of American Hebrew Congregations, 122–23

United Nations, 59, 137

United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, 123

universities, 7, 186–200

academic freedom in, 197–99

role of, 198

technocratic management culture of, 189–90, 198, 199

youth culture in, 186–89

Unveiling Traditions: Postcolonial Islam in a Polycentric World
(Majid), 140–41

USA PATRIOT Act,
see
Patriot Act

Vaughan, Sarah, 85, 91–92, 217

Vietnam War, 29, 57, 85, 154, 155, 174

voters, voting rights, 2, 3, 25, 33, 42, 49–50, 64, 65, 152, 203

Voting Rights Act, 84

Walker, David, 47–48, 155–56

Wallis, Jim, 168

War Against Parents, The
(Hewlett and West), 187

Warren, Robert Penn, 87

Washington, George, 44

Waskow, Rabbi Arthur, 121, 122

Watson, Thomas, 53

wealth inequality, 4, 12, 61, 179, 204, 205

Wells-Barnett, Ida B., 156, 217

Welty, Eudora, 20

West, Clifton, 185–86

westward expansion, 42

Native Americans and, 13, 14, 43, 44, 45, 50–51, 149

“Where Ya At?,” 182

white males, 33, 52, 53

white supremacy, 1, 14, 19, 20, 22, 40, 45, 49, 50, 53, 58, 67, 78, 81–82, 87, 158

Whitman, Walt, 22, 67, 77–78

Will, George, 195

Williams, Tennessee, 20, 92

Wilson, August, 102

Wilson, William Julius, 196

Wilson, Woodrow, 33, 53

Wolin, Sheldon S., 25–26, 206–7

women’s club movement, 156

World Bank, 59, 191, 196

World Council of Churches, 164, 165

World War I, 54, 109

World War II, 54, 55–57

Wright, Jeremiah, 168

Xenarchus, 210

Xenophon, 209

Yawar, Ghazi Ajil al-, 142

youth culture, 2, 4, 64–65, 92, 173–200, 203

addictions in, 176

author’s outreach to, 184–85, 187–89, 190, 199–200

democratic globalization movement and, 178–79

escapism in, 175–76

inflated egos of, 177

media and, 175–76, 187–88

moral outrage of, 177–78

nihilism of, 176–77

in universities, 186–89

see also
hip-hop

Zuckerman, Mortimer, 123