The dilemma of the black intellectual

Abstract

The peculiarities of the American social structure, and the position of the intellectual class within it, make the functional role of the negro intellectual a special one. The negro intellectual must deal intimately with the white power structure and cultural apparatus, and the inner realities of the black world at one and the same time. But in order to function successfully in this role, he has to be acutely aware of the nature of the American social dynamic and how it monitors the ingredients of class stratifications in American society…. Therefore the functional role of the negro intellectual demands that he cannot be absolutely separated from either the black or white world. Harold Cruse, The Crisis of the Negro Intellectual (1967) Copyright © 1987, Wiley Blackwell. All rights reserved