It seems that dear Mr. Cobb has done the impossible. He has defined black left right and "progressive" without having any clue what direction the described entity is moving. There is no such thing as black political strategy because we have no tangible, concrete ideal. Sorry, it is only my opinion. Dont worry, I'm just a nobody! What is the ideal political condition or philosophy for us as human beings subject to Stockholm Syndrome/Slave Mentality? It sure as hell ain't an end to racism. How the hell can the political purpose and direction of a people be defined by someone else's mental illness, Cobby my boy? Here is a political ideal: control 13 state houses or 34 senators so the other guy cant change the constitution? Is that conservative, liberal, or what? Its such an easy ideal, but hey, lets just keep chasing those windmills and confederate flags.

Here is a political ideal: control 13 state houses or 34 senators so the other guy cant change the constitution?

So long as the constitution means whatever nine people say it means, it doesn't much matter if the words get changed or not. 

In such a context, the constitution will change, or not, with the shifting winds of public opinion. Betting that the wind won't change is a good bet in the short run, but a guaranteed loser in the long run.

if you could put down your pride and figure out how to live in it, you'd be just fine too.

"put down your pride" is easily taken out of the delicate context here.

I'll not presume to suggest alternative wording, Cobb can handle words far better than I.  

"put down your pride" is easily taken out of the delicate context here.

I provide the full context in which the statement occurred, 

I respond in the context of someone who is NOT a Black Conservative.

So long as the constitution means whatever nine people say it means, it doesn't much matter if the words get changed or not.

So long as words change meaning over time it doesn't matter what you're talking about at all. 

Of course the trouble with all these "definitions" of Black folk is that they have the tendency to define some of us entirely out of existence.  For example, it is notable that Cobb appears to ascribe religious philosophy as an underpinning of political philosophy only to "Black Conservatives" ("Give me that Old Time Religion?").  It's a convenient oversimplification, because it essentially forces those whose political viewpoints have matured beyond simplification to into neat little boxes (which is always step one in legitimizing dismissal of those viewpoints.)  For example, what do you say to someone who would fundamentally reject some of the stated hallmarks of "Black Conservativism" as Cobb appears to define it, who nonetheless is deeply religious and indeed finds liberalism to be the closest to Jesus' stated philosophy about a Godly life? To a liberal who fights the good fight every day for access to and inclusion in existing institutional systems and the power that flows from them (not exactly what I'd call "shut up and fix me a sandwich mentality"?) I won't even touch the patent incoherence of asserting in the same paragraph that Black progressive ideologies change "every 7 years" yet simultaneously contending that the progressive tradition has at its center DuBois and Woodson even though these gentlemen each wrote what is now more than 75 years ago).

Frankly, these types of labeling systems have the real potential to do us as Black folk more harm than good.  Because I do think there is a commonality of experience that binds us all, whether we as individuals end up on the top or the bottom of the intellectual, economic or political food chain, for want of a better term.  And right now, with the country going to hell in a handbasket, we'd better start thinking about that again and working collectively.  Because, as someone else reminded me recently, Black folks are the canary in the mine, when it comes to survival issues in this country.  And at least in my neck of the woods, some of us are starting to keel over, despite having done everything "the right way" and being vested in being Americans and Americans to the depths of their being.

Come on, we've gone being past merely social, we're a goddamn hive species.

Ruthless interrogation of this assertion down to its logical and topological minutiae is - imoho - one of the keys to unlocking the mysteries of the human psycho-political world, and, of asserting our possible collective destiny.

For example, what is the funda-mental stable hive magnitude evident throughout the annals of recorded human history? Anything larger and anything smaller is liable to comprise a different sort of creature..., some creatures more or less real than others, some creatures more or less long-lived than others, etc...,

Note, our fundamental relationship with the hive changed dramatically during the 20th century.

Cobb fades into and out of dopamine trance...,

when awake, he holds forth as a conservative black, when in the throes of dopaminergic trance, he sounds every bit like a black conservative. I haven't yet discerned a circadianess regularity to his cycle, but I'd wager it has a lot to do with his workload, i.e., if he has a backlog of messy tech to map, he's awake, otherwise, he's snoozing along and bloviating in his sleep.

I provide the full context in which the statement occurred, 

As usual.  We all understand P6 as both accurate and honest in how he uses the words from those who disagree. 

I respond in the context of someone who is NOT a Black Conservative.

Well, I'm not a black conservative either, but I thought I understood what Cobb was trying to say, which is something more complex than can be dismissed by picking on the wording.  Agreed, the wording seems unnecessarily confrontational to those who disagree with the thought being expressed.

I took it as involving priorities. A conservative intellectual analysis often suggests lowering one's emotional demands in favor of overall success.

Well, I'm not a black conservative either, but I thought I understood what Cobb was trying to say, which is something more complex than can be dismissed by picking on the wording.

But check it...what I dismissed what his implication.

Communication takes place on many levels. I try to go after the right one

Communication takes place on many levels. I try to go after the right one.

Fair enough. 

"Frankly, these types of labeling systems have the real potential to do us as Black folk more harm than good. Because I do think there is a commonality of experience that binds us all, whether we as individuals end up on the top or the bottom of the intellectual, economic or political food chain, for want of a better term."

I agree with Shanikka. The chief problem, in my opinion, with Cobb's take on the shades of political alignment within the black community is that almost all of the criticisms that he directs at one group, for example, black progressives could be directed as easily at black conservatives or black liberals. I have found, for example, elements or tendencies within all three groupings to be elitist and exclusionary.

In addition, none of the groups as a whole has produced a concrete agenda or program, although within each general category there are sub-groups or organizations that have created an overarching vision that memebers of each respective group are committed to seeing realized. Cobb also fails (and in this respect he shares this tendency with other black conservatives) to explain why the beliefs and practices of Booker T. Washington, for example, largely failed to catch on with black Americans even when Washington was at the height of his authority and influence. This failure cannot even remotely be placed at DuBois' doorstep.

The reason, I suspect, is that black conservatives too often overlook or minimize the sense of racially-based nationalism that is an integral part of the consciousness of black people in this country. Most black Americans don't want to be black all the time but they also don't want to give up their being black in ways that they appreciate and love in order to share in the material abundance of this country. In this sense they want to be granted the same latitude that is routinely granted to other ethnic and racial minorities in this country.

Conversely, black progressives and nationalists too often overlook the degree to which black folks in this country genuinely want to be part of this country. This desire may be foolish and doomed to failure but it is a glacial fact of reality. Black people in America do not see themselves as Africans although many, many of them certainly see a real connection between themselves and their long lost cousins. They want to be embraced and accepted as part of American society. This desire may not be as strong among blacks over the age of 45 as it once was but it is still there lurking in the closet of their dreams and hiding under the cloak of their desires.

The reason, I suspect, is that black conservatives too often overlook or minimize the sense of racially-based nationalism that is an integral part of the consciousness of black people in this country. Most black Americans don't want to be black all the time but they also don't want to give up their being black in ways that they appreciate and love in order to share in the material abundance of this country. In this sense they want to be granted the same latitude that is routinely granted to other ethnic and racial minorities in this country.

Bears repeating.

I'm not really the guy who says "they do it so we can too," but again, this nationalism isn'texclusive to Black folks. Anyone who watches Columbus Day or St. Patrick's Day parades, observes Chinese or Jewish New Year, or celebrates Cinco de Mayo ought to recognize Juneteenth.

"The black liberal presumption is that the mainstream of American society is largely rich and corrupt, and owes something of its redemption in tribute to blackfolks."

I think that Cobb both misunderstands and misconstrues the black liberal tradition in American society and his designation of Audre Lorde and Tupac Shakur as its poet laureates is illustrative either of his confusion or lack of knowlege of this group. Sterling Brown, Gwendolyn Brooks, Maya Angelou, Smokey Robinson, Stevie Wonder, Louis Jordan, Ray Charles or Thomas E. Dorsey might better fit this designation depending on the socio-economic status and age of the various groups within the black liberal tradition that is under discussion.

The black liberal tradition contains many tendencies and shades of thinking. There is an element within this tradition that has come more and more to represent the so-called face of black liberalism over the past 30 years or so and it is this group who I believe that Glenn Loury had in mind when he forthrightly declared that there were a lot of people involved in spending the political capital of black folks who had no right to spend any of it.

Here is a political ideal: control 13 state houses or 34 senators so the other guy cant change the constitution? Is that conservative, liberal, or what? Its such an easy ideal, but hey, lets just keep chasing those windmills and confederate flags.

Unsustainable, unenforceable, undesirable and undoable - because the political rules would be changed faster in this arena than they were in response to unbeatable black performance in professional basketball.

Alternative: Total political and economic control of selected urban monads. Rapid establishment of food security and stability in the hood. Rinse and repeat.

Do this strategically in a southern, southwestern, or coastal metropolis with demographics amenable to such an effort, black or latino, or a coalition of black and latino, and I suspect you might be able to tee up on the state house or senatorial objectives, assuming those looked anymore viable or desirable after a few urban monads were afrofuturistically transformed.