ABSTRACT
Blacks have a right to demand a useful product from the political system in exchange for their participation and to evaluate the worthiness of politics on that basis. It is unreasonable to devalue black politics—to demean the kind of demanding leadership and focus on black issues that emerged from the special history of blacks and that has, thus, shaped their political mobilization. It is revealing that, in the period of black power, part of the deficit of white power was that it often failed to make viable political coalitions with blacks based on fair equity in return. Blacks have a right to demand a useful product from the political system in exchange for their participation and to evaluate the worthiness of politics on that basis. Even though black politicians who represent majority-white political jurisdictions may choose to function as a valid part of the collective leadership, the distinction between these two categories of politics should be clear.
