I think you got it all! And you don't sound like a mystical black essentialist because, if for no other reason, you are not ascribing any mystical powers or sensations to the collective. We can't all be stuffed into boxes because some of us don't like boxes and some of us don't like the same kinds of boxes and there is another group of us who don't have any opinions on the matter and they drive the first two groups crazy.

You are right though about there being already a natural constituency....

Doing something is what really matters. The unitive mystical qualities emerge from the collective process of Doing - and they're only mystical because unfamiliar.

everything else is - as they say - merely conversation, far and away the least constructive and most dangerous of activities...,

I think a single flaw has twisted the thinking of every race man that ever put forth a plan to save the masses.

 This is the flaw.  There are no "black masses."  There are black urbanites, black parents, black pipefitters, black school age children, etc.  Pick some constituency at the local level and WORK.  As soon as you get caught up in the race man/black masses dichotomy you are stuck in the world of ideological rhetoric.  rhetoric that is, incidentally, fifty years too old, whether we are talking about nationalism, integrationism, or radicalism.

kspence, yep, you got it.

You aren't actually missing the point, are you guys?

Ok.  I read it again.  There is no disagreement.

We're not feeling out that connection, strengthening it, know what I'm saying?

It's simply not possible to developmentally Do on the local level without strengthening the bonds of commonality and community.

This was explored to some depth a few weeks ago at VC

There is something playful and sufficient to itself about black culture, and once having returned our attentions to civilization building rather than sold-out or bought-in participation in an uncultured, dying civilization that is in violent conflict on multiple fronts, we will quickly begin to renew our confidence in ourselves.

Our code of cultural conduct should conform to the ‘politics of revelation’ and not to the ‘politics of salvation’.

That is to say, the usual relationship between client and consultant is that of "salvation": one has some sort of trouble, seeks out an expert, and the expert, on the basis of specialized knowledge, diagnoses the trouble and gives directions on the best way to solve it. It is the classic relationship between doctor and patient, but it may also be found between computer expert and intimidated user, accountant and business owner, clergy and congregant, pollster and politician.

In the modem, turbulent world, both the saviour and supplicant are in need of a collaborative approach to a new understanding of what is needed. This is the politic of revelation, where the new knowledge has to be entertained from wherever it may come.”

The politics of revelation builds on the self disclosure of the group as it chooses itself to be, in all the uncertainty and ambiguity of becoming."

Now add to this the simple instrumentality of democratic slashdotting, (not slamming websites because of slashdot posting, rather, the ranking, rating, and commenting capabilities slashdot provides) and voila, we've got a full-on, verifiable, popularly endorsed and constituted framework for ranking, rating, and measuring the percieved goodness of individual and collective Works by and within the community - something I refer to as cultural Showtime at the Apollo.

No, I get where you're coming from.