His research has explored the history of social movements in the U.S., the African Diaspora, and Africa; black intellectuals; music; visual culture; contemporary urban studies; historiography and historical theory; poverty studies and ethnography; colonialism/imperialism; organized labor; constructions of race; Surrealism, Marxism, nationalism, among other things. His essays have appeared in a wide variety of professional journals as well as general publications, including the Journal of American History, American Historical Review, Black Music Research Journal, African Studies Review, New York Times (Arts and Leisure), New York Times Magazine, The Crisis, The Nation, The Voice Literary Supplement, Utne Reader, New Labor Forum, Counterpunch, to name a few. His first two books, Hammer and Hoe and Race Rebels, grew out of the same set of questions: who makes up the black working-class, how do they fight back against oppressions of race, class and gender, and what do they fight for? In some ways, my goal was to write a social history of politics that pays attention to the culture and ideas of ordinary people in struggle. He wanted to know how people changed as a result of their participation in these social movements. He wanted to know how they fought back, survived, made community outside the pale of the organizations and movements that are too often our own source for historical narratives. The last question lay at the heart of Race Rebels, which included an elaborate discussion of everyday forms of resistance. He concluded that there is nothing inherently radical or oppositional about daily acts of resistance and survival; the relationship of these acts to power always depends on the context. Yo’ Mama’s DisFunktional: Fighting the Culture Wars in Urban America is a work of urban studies, public policy, social commentary and late 20th century history. In addition to offering a critique of the ethnographic imagination in studies of inner city communities, he examine various sources of the contemporary urban crisis and the means by which residents have tried to survive, achieve some kind of upward mobility, create art, and organize in order to fight back. This book has been widely read and debated.
