The prospects for democracy in the U.S. are connected to our ability to see and comprehend tragedy. The plight of African Americans in the US is that presence that provides a lens through which to see all human suffering, and thus broaden our ability to create a better society. But, we must not simply reduce suffering to the typical conversation about race alone. That perspective alone is too narrow. We must use the conversation about the treatment of "the least of these" to include the plight of everyday people (p. 150),that is, all people facing oppression who are commonly left out of the conversation about the common good. There are common foes in this battle for a better democracy; capitalism and racial reasoning.
With capitalism, we see that the invasion of marketplace reasoning into the black community has caused hedonistic a pursuit of pleasure to replace the structures that produce character, (church, education, family, etc). The end result is a breakdown of a culture. Instead of character development, individual pleasure and pursuit of happiness has prevailed, resulting in the breakdown of the black civil society, and a flood of unimpeded black-denigrating images and notions (pp. 25-27). The black civil society was a buffer against such images (pp. 23-25), but the market mentality degraded the buffer and ushered in nihilism. This also resulted in the crisis in black leadership (p. 56), for the structures that deflected black self-hate, and formed character are no longer prominent cultural fixtures, hence, yesterdays prominent black leaders are all we have left, since we have no contemporary channels through which such leaders would be nurtured and groomed today.
What's more, the intrusion of marketplace mentality has caused what few scattered voices we have to cast success in economic terms, and judge the community by its lack of economic achievement, while ignoring the presence of structures that abuse. This problem includes the conversation of racial reasoning. West points to three pillars of racial reasoning that are problematic: The notion of a claim to black authenticity, the closed ranks mentality, and the rise of black conservatism (p. 37). The claim to black authenticity is latent in the question "who is really black?" (p. 39). West refers to Clarence Thomas' Supreme Court confirmation hearings to illustrate this problem. Thomas' claim to black authenticity relied on his experience of racism.
But all blacks have an interest in resisting racism. The real dilemma becomes how this interest is defined, and how individuals and communities are understood (p. 39). Hence, West argues, a claim to black authenticity is contingent upon ones political definition of black interests (here is the presence of economic vs. cultural/historical identification again, as a reference to the onslaught of the market mentality) and one's ethical understanding of how this interest relates to individuals and communities in and outside black America (p. 39). Secondly, the notion of a closed ranks mentality occurs when claims to black authenticity are cast in the light of particular groups (black nationalism or the more broadly construed notion of "the black man" (p. 40). In an attempt to shield itself from racism, this mentality closes ranks, or conceals itself behind a cloak of racial consensus, invoking a real history of abuse and oppression to legitimate its facade. The closed rank mentality leads to a third and most problematic shift in this three-part structure of racial reasoning, Black conservativism.
If white conservativism involves a quest for moral and economic order based on traditional values that wind up scapegoating the oppressed, a very similar thing happens among blacks when the ranks are closed around a false consensus of black authenticity (p. 42). The least regarded within the black community are oppressed due to the narrowing of the scope of oppression when the ranks are closed based on race alone. West mentions black women and homosexuals, I would add children to that list. Thus, in his book, the plight of African Americans works primarily as a conceptual metaphor to speak about the plight of the least of these among us. Thus, in his concluding chapter he claims that black rage, like that of Malcolm X, should target white supremacy. But it should also have feminism (as an ally) like W.E.B. Dubois and Fredrick Douglas did (p. 151). West argues that Black rage should also not overlook homophobia, or economic injustices that impede the opportunities of "everyday people".
As usual, West advocates a prophetic outlook, and a focus on a love ethic to help end the crisis caused by capitalism and race reasoning. He advocates a politics of conversion in which love of self and others revitalizes the civil society valuing community over individual pleasure. Also, he advocates a prophetic framework of moral reasoning, one that transcends racial reasoning to keep a broader swath of the "oppressed" within its scope. This is, for West, one pillar of his prophetic pragmatism. The other is a definition of democratic theory that can value the input of those who suffer the effects of nihilism.