ABSTRACT
This chapter is primarily intended to provide an updating of the historiographical work, beyond additions to the main text, particularly as bearing on the current situation covered in Chapter 11. I have also felt it necessary to include a section on the linguistic problem, which bears on the `racialised discourse' issue, and includes some discussion of Glasgow (2009). Before proceeding further I should note Layli Phillips's (2004) observation that among the `vulnerabilities' raised by the postmodern situation for erstwhile oppressors and oppressed alike is `the question of who can speak for whom' (p. 251). This rightly puts someone like myself on the spot. All I can say is that I see my role in the mightily confusing current situation as the limited, but nevertheless important, one of trying to keep the historical record straight and read the nature of its continuing dynamics, and current issues, as best I can. And maybe not being American in some ways gives my angle of approach a value of its own. Whether I am speaking for anyone beyond myself has become depressingly unclear.
