Planting Churches among the City's Poor - Volume 1

P ART II: T HEOLOGICAL AND M ISSIOLOGICAL P RINCIPLES AND I NSIGHTS • 257

Different Traditions of African-American Response

Interpreting a Legacy, Shaping an Identity, and Pursuing a Destiny as a Minority Culture Person Rev. Dr. Don L. Davis, adapted from and informed by Cornel West’s Prophesy Deliverance .

I. Exceptionalism – Afro-centrism and superiority – “Above”

A. Definition – tendency to respond in terms of exalted, superior, and even romanticized view of one’s own cultural and racial roots

B. Example – Louis Farrahkan, W.E.B. DuBois

C. Issues

1. Pendulum swing: same bigotry as oppressive group, only inverted (“Same shoe, different foot”)

2. Isolationist and separatistic; have no desire to be in relationship with people of majority culture and/or race

3. See separation and segregation as an essential step on the road to a full personhood as a minority group

4. To gain one’s own identity is the prime goal, not relating to people of another culture

II. Assimilationism – Adopting the predominant culture as one’s primary, and in some cases, only, culture – “Behind”

A. Definition – the tendency to ignore or bypass one’s particular cultural roots in order to identify with a more general, broad, and accepted majority culture identity

B. Example – Shelby Steele, Alan Keys

C. Issues

1. Advocate a full blown adoption of the predominant cultural identity (e.g., “I am not Black, but American”)