RACE WAR IN AMERICA

Woodruff, a ""black Christian priest,"" has written an obvious and ill-informed little polemic on the 300 year ""race war"" which, he claims, is intensifying daily. Rejecting integration, he devotes himself to refuting Amos-and-Andy stereotypes of the shiftless, amoral dim-witted Negro who, whites say, lacks ""pride and dignity,"" while simultaneously delivering finger-wagging admonitions to blacks who have fallen for these degrading lies. A smattering of Baldwin, Ellison, and Fanon (none of whom would refer, as he does, to whites as the undifferentiated ""enemy"") is inserted to bolster this simplistic thesis -- here presented as revelation from on high. In case you ever doubted it Jackie Robinson and other black athletes had to be bigger, faster, and better than their white counterparts to get ahead. More news: Othello, Hannibal, and Cleopatra were black albeit they have ""been consistently portrayed as white."" All improvements in the real condition of blacks to date have been ""illusionary."" They are still slaves: ""rich-slaves, doctor-slaves, lawyer-slaves. . .mayorslaves."" Moral: the enemy understands only power, therefore blacks must achieve unity or they will not survive. When blacks achieve power America will be neither an integrated nor a segregated society but rather ""disintegrated"" -- whatever that means. Too bad.