Dessentializing Difference: Transformative Visions in Contemporary Black Thought

Abstract

Contemporary African American communication scholarship has produced a number of theoretical perspectives that enlarge our understanding of the intellectual and cultural dimensions of identity, difference, and diversity. This article offers dialogic coherence as a viable framework for the discussion of contemporary African American rhetorical and political thought and practice. Drawing on the insights of progressive Black thinkers such as Michael Eric Dyson, bell hooks, and Cornel West, the article illustrates how coherence theory reveals a theoretical trajectory of spiritually inspired militancy that enriches the emancipatory potential of contemporary Black thought and rhetorical inquiry.

Keywords:

• Dialogic Coherence
• Double Consciousness
• W E B Du Bois
• Michael Eric Dyson
• Bell Hooks
• Martin Luther King Jr
• Spiritually Inspired Militancy
• Tranformationism
• Cornel West