Discuss the success of black athletes such as Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, and the Williams sisters. Do their athletic achievements and popular acclaim reveal that racial barriers to success have largely disappeared or do they obscure the obstacles against which the majority of black Americans in non-athletic fields must continue to struggle?
How important is the astounding success of a few African Americans in the entertainment industry? How should one interpret Oprah Winfrey’s establishment of a billion-dollar commercial empire or Bill Cosby’s fortune and fame? Are their successful career anomalies in the African-American experience or evidence of substantial progress? Do they provide support for the thesis that class has transcended race as the chief source of oppression and misery in the United States?
What will be the most lasting legacy of late-twentieth-century black artists? Will the novels of writers such as Toni Morrison outlive the music of early Hip Hop artists? Is the Hip Hop genre capable of creating great works of art or are its products ephemeral by their very nature? Is the proliferation of black artists into a variety of fields and genres more important than any individual product of those artists?
