The Sociology of Black Separatism

Abstract

In contrast to those Sociologists who have in the past identified with and accepted the ruling class notion of Integration and have proceeded to develop elaborate models of race relations cycles, pluralism or other assimilationist and functionalist models to support this basic assumption, the author argues that Sociologists should instead attempt to develop dynamic models (e.g. based on the Dialectics) to show why some form of black Separation is inevitable and the form that it can take as well as the processes which are leading to this. In trying to locate blacks in the American social and political structure politicians, scholars and laymen alike have used the concept of "Integration" and "Separation" to designate polar points on a continuum which relates blacks to the American social structure. These two terms are elevated to "ideals" in the United States because the best majority of blacks are suspended on the margins of both possibilities. The predominant and recurring fact is neither integration or separation, but a state of limbo, of marginality. The Sociology of Black Separation should therefore be concerned with basically three facts: the white denial of integration, the condition of black marginality, and the ensuing imperative of black separation.