ABSTRACT
Each decade in the last half of the twentieth century has presented a peculiar, dynamic brand of politics by African Americans. At the turn of the 1990 decade, it is difficult to escape the conclusion that the state of national and international economies will greatly determine the nature and results of political demands. Whatever else is true about the American political system, it is certainly the case that such legislative politics are usually slow and painfully incremental. The social and economic ramifications of a multiracial multiethnic society are too deeply embedded in the American system to conclude otherwise. In the American system, politics, for those most successful over time, are an instrumental process. In the final analysis, politics have to be seen as the continuing struggle to maximize benefits for the largest number of constituents. Precisely because African Americans remain disproportionately economically deprived, it should not be difficult to determine what benefits are needed.
