ABSTRACT
Within contemporary African-American cultural and political discourse, identity politics in general and disputes about ‘Blackness in particular have become the site of stimulating and sometimes acrimonious debate-among the focal points of many of these debates are the positions articulated around the issues of diversity, affirmative action and political correctness on university campuses around the country, the efficacy of the liberal welfare state, the behavioral and moral fitness of the so called urban ‘underclass’ and more recently the appeal of Afrocentric discourses and nationalism.2
