We Are the Leaders We Have Been Looking For

by Eddie S. Glaude Jr.

From the author of the New York Times bestseller Begin Again, a politically astute, lyrical meditation on how ordinary Black Americans can shake off their reliance on a small group of professional politicians and pursue self-cultivation and grassroots movements to achieve a more just and perfect democracy.

We are more than the circumstances of our lives, and what we do matters. In We Are the Leaders We Have Been Looking For, one of the nation’s preeminent scholars and a New York Times bestselling author, Eddie S. Glaude Jr., makes the case that the hard work of becoming a better person should be a critical feature of Black politics. Through virtuoso interpretations of Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and Ella Baker, Glaude shows how ordinary people have the capacity to be the heroes that our democracy so desperately requires, rather than outsourcing their needs to leaders who purportedly represent them.

Based on the Du Bois Lectures delivered at Harvard University, the book begins with Glaude’s unease with the Obama years. He felt then, and does even more urgently now, that the excitement around the Obama presidency had become a disciplining tool to narrow legitimate forms of Black political dissent. This narrowing continues to undermine the well-being of Black communities. In response, Glaude guides us away from the Scylla of enthusiastic reliance on elected leaders and the Charybdis of full surrender to a belief in unchanging political structures. Glaude weaves anecdotes about his own evolving views on Black politics together with the writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson, John Dewey, Sheldon Wolin, Toni Morrison, James Baldwin, and Ralph Ellison.

Narrated with passion and philosophical intensity, this book is a powerful reminder that if American democracy is to survive, we must build a better society that derives its strength from the pew, not the pulpit.

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction, Social Justice, History, Race, Philosophy, Leadership

176 pages, Hardcover

Published April 16, 2024

About the author

Eddie S. Glaude Jr. is the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor at Princeton University and author of Democracy in Black.

Reviews

[Henry Hicks · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved Dr. Glaude's Begin Again, and was so excited to read this book. In many ways, it makes sense that the follow-up to Glaude's book on James Baldwin has the thesis that it does--if Begin Again was a deification of Baldwin, We Are the Leaders We Have Been Looking For argues directly against that kind platforming, stating that a commitment to living in the shadows of those that we immortalize as giants only restricts Black radical action from forward motion.

My favorite three quotes, which make this argument clear:

"Invocations of 'the Movement' work to freeze us in the options 'it' makes available (often drowning those of us who take it seriously in nostalgic longings for origins) and to tether us to the people and their surrogates (or those who claim to be them) we are expected to follow. Black moralists often deploy heroes to shut down any possibility of speaking back to tradition and of engaging in imaginative inquiry by narrowing the range of words and deeds available to us." (pg. 62)

"We may hear the invocation of one of the movement's heroes as a basis for the condemnation of current practice (e.g., when former congressman Alan West stated that Dr. King would condemn the Occupy Wall Street movement or when former Atlanta mayor, Kasim Reed, in response to Black Lives Matter protests, said that 'Dr. King would never take a freeway')." (pg. 61)

"I want to suggest that with the reduction of civil rights activism into the iconography of Dr. King (with his federal holiday and with the memorial in Washington, DC), the impact of Jesse Jackson's presidential bids in 1984 and 1988, and with the election of Obama in 2008, what we witnessed amounted to a radical narrowing of much of Black politics." (pg. 105)

I loved this argument--it picks up on concepts introduced in Michelle Alexander and Angela Davis's recent writings (I'm thinking of the conclusion of The New Jim Crow, where Alexander make an argument to shift the center of our movement away from the movement lawyers and progressive politicians in DC, back towards the communities in the South which have rooted Black freedom struggle for centuries), and builds upon them significantly. I think Alexander--and Glaude--are absolutely right.

But where the book fails, in my opinion, is that along the way it manages to become guilty of the very thing it argues against. The book is consisted of three lectures given by Glaude in his tenure as an academic, and the content is overrun with references to philosophers of the past--there's Nietzsche, Emerson, Thoreau, and more. Explorations of their offerings and theory take up half, if not more, of the content here--and while they're useful to some degree, I found myself wondering: where are the voices of communities and the organizers that Glaude would pivot towards? Where is the uplift of ongoing work among movement organizers today to reject the notion of an individual, charismatic male leader?

Imani Perry's quote on the back of the book is certainly right: this is Glaude's first step towards the role of "public philosopher." And so, maybe that is where my issue comes from. I didn't go into this book expecting a philosophical approach, but rather a more sociological or journalistic one. I think that this book certainly has value, and I'd absolutely recommend it (it's such a short read, just around 100 pages; and Glaude is an incredible writer and thinker)--but I'd admittedly be more excited to read a more applied manifesto for the movement rather than this more academic collection.

[Andre(Read-A-Lot) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eddie Glaude proves once again that he is a deep researcher and a deeper thinker. In this short book, he revisits his lectures at Harvard that desperately seeks to define democracy and democratic pragmatism. His thoroughness allows him to pull from different philosophers who have opined on democracy. He juxtaposes the past with the present and argues for a democracy that looks to the individual to be part of creating the greatest good, not just for him/her self as opposed to the top down “great” leadership that is often the way of Black leadership.

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Glaude is speaking mainly to the experience of African Americans in this book which is based on the Du Bois Lectures at Harvard. However, I believe that the approach he is advocating is really applicable to everyone who feels that our democracy is in deep trouble. The book is short, pithy and deep. Glaude's message is that we should not look to heroes to save us from what is wrong in our society. He examines Dewey, Emerson, James Baldwin, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X and Ella Baker among others. From Dewey he stresses the role of imagination to see beyond the limits of the actual world we inhabit. He discusses imagination as an act of sympathy which enables us to see beyond ourselves and take heed of the past as well as be open to as yet realized possibilities that attend any problematic situation. "Emerson sought to democratize greatness--to invoke the example of heroes who exemplify what we are all in fact capable of. In the end, encounters with great people serve to educate us in greatness such that we might exemplify that quality, in our own unique way, in our lives." Baker, the founder of SNCC believed that "people have to be made to understand that they cannot look for salvation anywhere but to themselves." "Democracy carries with it the radical notion that every individual, no matter their station in life, is capable of exercising responsibility." I found this book to be profound and a thoughtful and persuasive response to all those who throw up their hands and feel there is nothing they can do to effect change in our society.

[Natalie Park · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars. A great thinker!

[Don Schmidt · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book contained much deeper thoughts on basic philosophies of democracy than I was ready for, but that's my bad.

Eddie Glaude, Jr. is a renowned professor and former chair of the Center for African-American Studies at Princeton. His PhD is in religion, so he tilts much more towards philosophy than history (although there is plenty of great history in the book to set context).

The book centers on three W.E.B. DuBois Lectures Professor Glaude conducted a number of years ago on three people central to the Civil Rights struggles of the 60's and 70's, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X and Ella Baker. The main point (in my opinion) that Glaude is trying to get across is that democracy is at its highest and best when it comes from the bottom up. When people get organized and everyone is equally valued and allowed to contribute in the democratic process of change, outcomes will be better. People should be relying on each other and not handing over their future to individual leaders.

As someone who took a philosophy class in college, it was one of the most difficult courses I had. It's a very technical area of study, and if you're not well versed in it, reading comprehension can become difficult. Although this is a short read, it's not a fast one. It is worth reading as it will give you perspectives on democracy that you most likely haven't had before, especially if you're not an African-American. That reason alone makes this book worth a read.

[Paula · Rating 4 out of 5]

Audible format

[Miguel Cordova · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well, luckily it was a short read. I don't know. Much was missing. Best chapter was the Ella Baker chapter where I found myself agreeing with the notion that leadership is about bringing up folks with you. Not just sharing power, but being a part of building something bigger than one person. I think too many "leaders" lack that ability because they are so self-absorbed. They want to cling to that "power" they think they have earned on their own. It becomes no longer about a movement or about community, but more about the power of one person. As if that can't be shared or passed on or developed by others. The book was ok. Almost a review of different thoughts out there of leadership. It just was not what I was expecting.

[Ashlie Kendrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

I listened to this book, which changed how I experienced it. As it was, it washed over me. Mr. Glaude is so so intelligent, and his arguments were on occasion very cerebral, so much so that I couldn’t always keep up 100% in the audiobook format. I’d like to reread this with the book in my hands, so that I can have more time to think through what he is saying.

I’m not sure that I always agreed with him. His perspective was different than mine, which challenged me at times to change my way of thinking to understand his words better. He kept coming back to a dream for a better community, one where we value everyone’s contributions, and I’m very much on that same page. I highly recommend this book.

[Catherine Wicker · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a good comparison about the leaders of the civil rights movement and how the role of the leaders that became the face of the movement vs. the work of Ella baker. The point of the book is that the leaders within the community are the ones that can and do the work. This is potentially a good pairing with I’ve got the light of freedom.

[Crystal · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Serge · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love the moral courage evident in this book. This a deep and pragmatic meditation on where we go from here (chaos or community) I am reminded of the writings of Abraham Heschel on the prophetic. This book will stand the test of time and inspire my children's children because it is so rooted in an abiding faith in the Beloved Community.

Here are my notes
We Are The Leaders We Have Been Looking For by Eddie Glaude

P.4 Fear and panic grabbed hold of the country as demographic data revealed the “browning of America,” and white people– at least those who felt they could be nothing but white– clung to their gods and longed for the days when people who looked like me knew their place.

P.5 Once again, as is often the case wen the nation confronts its contradictions, we witnessed the “tricky magic” around race, an alchemy that transforms fears and hatreds into scapegoats and eases the pain of a nation still uncertain about who and what it is. The so-called racial reckoning sparked by protests around police killings waned as white grievances and fears intensified.

P.6 Amid the circus, Americans had to deal with their dead alone. No public rituals. No collective sorrow. People couldn’t sit shiva. In New Orleans, folks could not march in a second line. No wakes. No family gathering at the bedside to say goodbye

P.7 The dead kept piling up:” A plague is no respecter of delusions.” Police kept killing Black folk. Trump kept being Trump. The nation teetered on the edge of collapse as political divisions deepened and everyone struggled to breathe because the political air was so damn thick.

P.9 Sophomoric readings of “Self-Reliance” often leave us with individuals unencumbered by the past and free to do whatever they imagine as good for them. But Emerson understood profoundly that we are born in a world not of our own making, and that we often find ourselves caught up in circumstances , in ways of acting,that do not originate with us.

P.12 We cannot be concerned solely with the future as if the past is not present in our current living. If we do, hubris will hollow out our dreams. Any struggle for the world as it could be must be imagined Close to the ground in the world as it is and as it came to be.

P.13 A discontinuity has been imposed by the living, said, and their heroic gestures had been repressed along with the details of the shameful abandonment of those goals for which they had given up their lives. all to maintain an American innocence in the face of the evil which sprung from our good intentions.

P.15 For him and I share this view, pragmatism, rightly understood, is a form of cultural criticism in the face of America's uncertainty about who and what it is. It also considers the consequences that follow from the ongoing refusal of the country to know itself. John Dewey matters here. Dewey believed that philosophy should be thought of as a method of locating and interpreting the more serious of the conflicts that occur in life and a method of projecting ways for dealing with them: a method of moral and political diagnosis and prognosis.

P.16 My reading of pragmatism insists that human beings, fragile and Fallen though we may be, must bear the responsibility of securing by practical means the values we most cherish. If democracy is to flourish, we must cultivate Democratic dispositions in which we, along with others, demonstrate in our doings a caring Outlook toward others and assume the responsibility for setting forth intelligently some idea of a collective good life. to my mind, this describes the black Freedom struggle at its best. next line thinking about how the fact that colors the act of self creation for those of dark or Souls and how it gives new meaning to w. e. b. Du Bois apostrophe s Cry of two unreconciled strivings two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder. and knowing that, no matter the darkness of the days, we have the capacity, if we only imagine it so and dare to act, to transform our world.

P.19 Returning to these lectures after so many years reminds me that when we fly, We become the hope this dark world desperately needs.

Chapter 1: On Prophecy and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

P. 21 For Dewey, the imagination is more than a playground for epicurean delight; it enables us to reach for the fullness of the complexity of human endeavor; it is that which makes possible a measure of distance from the cultural frames that box us in order to transform situations and to create ourselves and you. I insist that the power of Prophecy rests within us, not outside of us or as the special possession of a Chosen Few.

P.22 All of this is to lay the groundwork for some preliminary Reflections on how we might reconstruct the idea of the prophetic and the heroic in African-American Democratic life. This effort assumes a deep-seated suspicion about the Democratic character of the prophetic tradition in African-American politics and involves an admittedly idiosyncratic reading of Dr Martin Luther King Jr as a romantic prophet. In the end, I worry about the ways a certain view of the prophetic mode distorts and disfigures democratic debate within black political life as some assert an Authority that exists apart from the demos.

P.23 Dewey appeared to be tracking this development in its earliest phase and argued that what was needed in response to these conditions was a reconstructed notion of individuality consonant with the moment, in which ideas and ideals are brought into harmony with the realities of the age and which they act. With liberalism's failure, what was required was a more adequate view of individuality in light of Market forces that sought to contain democratic energies. We needed to imagine ourselves and our being together differently if we were to respond effectively to the new forms of concentrated power.

P.24 Instances of the flux in which individuals are loosed from the ties that once gave order and support their lives are glaring. They are indeed so glaring that they blind our eyes to the causes which produce them. individuals are groping their way through situations which they do not direct and which do not give them direction. the beliefs and ideas that are uppermost and their Consciousness are not relevant to the society in which they outwardly act and which constantly reacts upon them. Their conscious ideas and standards are inherited from an age that has passed away; they're minds, as far as consciously entertained principles and methods of interpretation or concern, are at odds with actual conditions. This profound split is the cause of distraction and bewilderment.

P.25 For Dewey, reconstruction can be nothing less than the work of developing, of forming, of producing (in the literal sense of that word) the intellectual instrumentalities which will progressively direct inquiry into the deeply and inclusively human – that is to say, moral facts– of the present scene and situation. A reconstructed view of individualism, in this case, does exactly that given the way the old view of individualism denied/denies freedom by perversely claiming it.

P.27 Prophets profess and exhort with the aim of changing minds and behavior, not with the hopes of demonstrating competence. The Prophet speaks, to borrow a phrase from Matthew Arnold, with “fire and strength” on behalf of someone or something– be it God, Nation, or muse. her Authority does not derive from some inner Source or from acquired expertise; the fact that she has been chosen has little to do with her innate talents but, instead, her authority springs from the outside from that which carries the force to compel us, or those who would listen ( most don't listen at all), to act otherwise.

P.31 The View I am putting forward is not how we traditionally understand the Hebrew prophets. I wanted democratize the prophetic: to insist that we all have the capacity to engage in Prophecy in so far as we all have an occasion, in the exercise of critical intelligence, to envisage an unrealized possibility in the context of efforts to secure and expand those ideals that animate our form of life.

P.32 Imagination, in its prophetic form, affords us the possible distance necessary to say with fire and strength what is wrong with our current social arrangements and to forecast the emergence of more just arrangements. It is a reflection upon limits and Prospects; it can be a call to pursue idealized ends and a claim about the animating values of our form of life that may require us to risk everything in their pursuit.

P.33 I am reminded of Walter Benjamin's take on Mark's discussion of revolutionary time in the Eighteenth Brumaire: “ history is the object of a construction, whose site is not the homogeneous and empty time but time filled by the now. Thus, to Robespierre ancient Rome has a past charge with the time of the now which he blasted out of the Continuum of history. the French Revolution viewed itself as Rome returned again. It cited ancient Rome the way fashion cites costumes of the past.”The claim of the past ( it's invocation in the context of prophetic speech) is not to swallow whole an as yet realized present. Instead it's voicing ( our attempt to claim or redeem it) often interrupts current uses of the past in the justification of the order of things.

P.37 Democracy, in the end, is much more than a body of laws and procedures; it entails the kind of persons we are to be in community with others. how might a democratize view of the prophetic work in light of this vision, especially in the hands of a subject people for whom the prophetic function is Central to their political imaginings?

P.38 King's prophetic imagination was nurtured in the Black Church. He was a child of preachers. His father and grandfather were not simply Baptist ministers, but ministers who saw the significance of churches to the social, economic, and political realities that affected the daily lives of black people. His was a moral as well as political concern, where racism and poverty were evils that threaten the so-called Redeemer nation. His message was one of a turning back to the founding ideals of the nation – not a nostalgic longing for Origins but a citation and a time of crisis of the ideals that best represent who we take ourselves to be.

Of course, he had his moments of doubt. We need only recall the poignant moment recounted in Strength to Love when racist threatened his family. King cried out, I am here taking a stand for what I believe is right. but now I am afraid. I'm at the end of my powers. I have nothing left. I've come to a point where I can't face it alone.”

P. 39 Faith, then, can be understood as a tendency toward action and Imagination as it's Central conduit.

P.40 In fact, he stated that Americans of all colors stood between two worlds the dying old and the emerging new, and the ever-pressing nature of the presence stood only as a dramatic rehearsal for a new world desperately trying to come into being. drawing on Emerson, King encourages the congregation to confront their fears, for he has not learned the lesson of Life who does not every day surmount fear. King dared to imagine a better world. imagination here is not some naive music. imagination is that which allows us to spy the dim outlines of a possible future unharnessed from the problems of now; imagination helps us to muster the courage to proceed in pursuit of conditions that are not readily seen; it is the conduit for a faith that encourages and emboldens us to run ahead of the evidence what William James described as that “readiness to act in a cause the prosperous issue of which is not certified in advance.”

P.41 In doing so, we turn our attention away from the glare of the so-called prophet before us to the delicate task of tending to the prophetic that lies within. On this reading, King would no longer cast such a shadow over us (or, minimally, over me)-- a kind of moral giant under which we cower; instead, he exemplifies what resides in each of us: the power to unsettle the present by insisting on the open-ended character of the future.

P.42 Dewey maintained in his ethics that a person entirely lacking in sympathetic response might have a keen calculating intellect, but it would have no spontaneous sense of the claims of others for satisfaction of their desires. the person would be lacking in what James Baldwin describes as love. Dewey goes on to say that a person of narrow sympathy is of necessity a person of confined Outlook upon the scene of human good. to put ourselves in the place of others, to see things from the standpoint of their purposes and values, to Humble our own pretensions and claims till they reach the level they would assume in the eye of an impartial sympathetic observer, is the surest way to attain objectivity of moral knowledge. sympathy is the animating mold of moral judgment.”

Imagination is that feature of deliberation or inquiry that guides our attention beyond the immediately experienced so that we can take heed of those lessons of the past as well as take in those as yet realize possibilities that attend any problematic situation.

P.43 Dewey wrote, “Democracy as a personal, an individual, way of life involves nothing fundamentally new. But when applied it puts a new practical meaning in old ideas. put into a fact that signifies that powerful present enemies of democracy can be successfully met only by the creation of personal attitudes in individual human beings; that we must get over our tendency to think that its defense can be found in any external means whatever, whether military or civil, if they are separated from Individual attitudes so deep-seated as the constitute personal character. We have to become better people.

P.47 A self-critical disposition, not a self-righteous one, was needed if the country was to be born again. King exemplified the claim, in his sacrifice, that democracy is a way of life predicated on a working faith in the possibilities of who we can become.

I want to Bear Witness to the multitudes of prophetic Acts by Ordinary People striking the blow for freedom in the face of a world that insists we all become like sacks and stomachs in need of heroes to liberate us.

Chapter 2: On Heroism and Malcolm X

P.50 “Between his merciless children, who were terrified of him, the pregnancies, the birth, the rats, the murder is on Lennox avenue, the whores who live downstairs, his job on Long Island – to which she went every morning wearing a Derby or a Homburg, and a black suit, white shirt, dark time, looking like the preacher he was, and his black lunch box in his hand– and his unreciprocated love for the great God Almighty, it is no wonder our father went mad”

P.53 Too often, the next self is blocked from view by the reality of a life lived thus far, and by the heroes we cling to as surrogates for our wounded selves.

P.57 As I grew older I left behind the heroes of my fantasies. Dr King and Malcolm X, Stokely Carmichael and Huey Newton stood in their Stead. all served, I suppose, as proxies for an ideal of masculinity compromised by the lingering wounds of a father's love. theirs was a heroic age– a time when individuals in community emerged from the shadows of American apartheid to challenge long standing social customs to upend racist laws and to face down the brutal violence that sustained both. It was a period in which young people of all colors asserted themselves throughout the country, shattering received understandings of “masters and their so-called subordinates,” and leaving the shards beneath the country's feet.

P.58 “Excessive focus on pathology and moral shortcomings,” Schwartz argues, made us all susceptible to the slave morality that so worried Frederich Nietzsche. Goods more consonant with Multicultural ideals replaced strength and virility, and we became, to shamelessly steal from James Baldwin, like our bread: tasteless foam rubber. Such leveling banished any substantive ideal of greatness. We were left, Schwartz maintains, with no feeling of having descended from a higher state of political morality, nostalgic yearning for a sublime. in which great men walked the earth, no belief in, let alone effort to restore, earlier. of epic heroism.”

P.65 The hero stands in an uneasy relation to democratic life. the gravitational pull of his personality causes us to bulge out in the direction of him, losing sight of our capacities as the certainty of the hero's position becomes our own.

P.76 Exemplars are curious in this way. they both Inspire and potentially enslave. you must work then to strike the right balance between admiration and self trust, not succumbing to the temptation of idolatry that blinds us to our own unique excellences and potential greatness.

P.78 For Paz, “Between tradition and modernity there is a bridge. when they are mutually isolated, tradition stagnates and modernity vaporizes; when in conjunction, modernity breeds life into tradition, while the latter replies with depth and gravity. he goes on to say that reflecting on the Now does not imply relinquishing the future for getting the past: the present is the meeting place for the three directions of time.”

Chapter 3: On Democracy and Ella Baker

P.80 “Instead of the leader as a person who was supposed to be a magic man,” she argued, “you could develop individuals bound together by a concept of the benefit of the larger numbers and provided an opportunity for them to grow into being responsible for carrying out a program.”

As Baker noted, “My basic sense of it has always been to get people to understand that in the long run they themselves are the only protection they have against violence or Injustice… People have to be made to understand that they cannot look for salvation anywhere but to themselves.”

P.81 Emeson insisted in an exquisite riff on the Parable of the Talents, “that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given to him to till.”

Our attention must turn from the glare of the supposed gifts of the prophet and hero toward the cultivation of dispositions requisite for genuine democratic life.

P.83 I have sought to read the prophetic in a registered shorn of its romance with genius and released from its indebtedness to a certain view of the Hebrew prophets. I locate the prophetic function in the very exercise of critical intelligence– to see it as the work of the moral imagination envisioning beyond the immediate circumstances of our living ( a dramatic rehearsal in the service of justice).

[Josh Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s couched in a very academic context but these few paragraphs seem really important to my understanding of race, democracy and history:

“There is something terribly familiar about Wolin's account of fugitive democracy. Not so much in his appeal to fifth-century Athens; I have always been struck by the need, at least on the part of some white American thinkers, to reach for a distant past for examples of the world they commend to us. The theologian Stanley Hauerwas directed our attention to the early Christians. Wolin to Athens. Both run past the Black folk right in front of their faces. After all, invisibility has been a hallmark of our presence in politics and in letters. But when Wolin describes fugitive democracy as "a mode of being which is conditioned by bitter ex-perience," as something "doomed to succeed only temporarily, but is a recurrent possibility," as "a moment of experience, a crystallized response to deeply felt grievances or needs on the part of those whose main preoccupation is to scratch out a decent exis-tence"; when he sees democratic action beginning with "the demos constructing/ collecting itself from scattered experiences and fusing these into a self-consciousness about common powerlessness and its causes" and the demos as being "created from a shared realization that powerlessness comes from being shut out of the councils where power's authority is located",48 when he says, without flinching, that democracy escapes form and ought to be understood instead as standing opposition" in these moments of apparent despair and ever-encroaching darkness, Wolin sounds a lot like those Black folk on the underside of the American political project who dared to imagine a democratic future for themselves, for those they hold dear, and for future generations.

Throughout his body of work Wolin acknowledges the realities of American racism ana the influence of the civil rights movement on his political theory. But neither takes center stage in his theo-ritzing of the political. The civil rights movement serves as an example of collective action that gathers its power from outside the system, but it does not, for Wolin, rise to the level of sustained theoretical reflection. All too often when Wolin engages the issue directly he slips into a kind of sentimentality about the evil of the institution of slavery or the moral failings of those who embraced it only to point beyond the deadly fact of its presence in American life.” (97)

[Pam · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a Master Class of Black history. It is a challenge to read because it shows me there is so much I do not know.
The first and (especially) last chapters are beautiful and frame the rest of the essays inside.

[Larkin Tackett · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoy watching the author on the Meet the Press and this is the first of his books that I've read, which is a series of his Princeton lectures to "to reconstruct a view of the prophetic and the heroic in African American politics with an eye toward democratic life." Although it read as very academic (not surprising given they are lectures) and I often felt like I missed something from the syllabus, there were key messages I needed to hear in the midst of Trump chaotic power grab in DC.

Among the most important is the power of our dreams, or prophecy, and our faith to see and then act for a better world. "Mine is an abiding faith in the capacity of everyday, ordinary people to be otherwise and in our ability, no matter the evils that threaten to overwhelm, to fight for a more just world. That faith isn’t naïve or a fantastical evasion of the ugliness of human beings. It reflects my willingness to run ahead of the evidence, to see beyond the limit conditions of my current experience, and to ready myself to act on behalf of something not yet in existence."

Other powerful points in his book:

- Trump simply turned the country over so that all could see the shit hidden underneath.
- The fate of the world is in our hands after all, as Toni Morrison suggested in her Nobel lecture.
- ...when we fly and when we acknowledge the wind beneath our wings, we become the hope this dark world desperately needs.
- We are the prophets we have been looking for. No more waiting for rainbow signs. Our imaginations can point the way toward a better world.
- "(Ella) Baker believed, and she enacted this belief in the way she organized, that what the Black freedom struggle needed most, what America needed most, was 'the development of people who are interested not in being leaders as much as in developing leadership among other people.' As Baker note, 'People have to be made to understand that they cannot look for salvation anywhere but to themselves.'"
- as James Baldwin said, the storms are always coming.
- James Baldwin insisted that the messiness of the world was, in part, a reflection of the messiness of our interior lives. This claim doesn’t deny the workings of capital, or the power of oligarchs, or the pervasiveness of systems of racial oppression. That would be foolish and naïve. The two forms of messiness influence one another. Baldwin insisted, and rightly so, that human beings have a role to play. Not as mindless pawns moved about by unseen forces or by the inevitable march of history or by the hideously petty nature of life itself. Our choices matter because all is not settled. We matter, because we are reacting, experimenting, feeling, concerned with influencing the direction of our encounters in a way that will benefit and not harm, and those actions in turn shape our environments. As such, the question of who we take ourselves to be—a question of the character of those who are making choices—becomes a central feature of democratic practice. Baldwin believed, and so do I, that we have to become better people if we are to change the world. He believed that we could be better by "being always open to exploring the claims of different ends," of imagining a different way of living with others, and of doing the hard work ourselves of changing the world, not handing it over to so-called prophets and heroes.
- we can change ourselves and our world for the better. But the outcomes are not guaranteed and are often provisional. The world is a fraught and vexing place, precarious and perilous, with a history that is a thicket of thorns. Acting in such a world is no sunny walk in the park.
- Hatred gums things up, gums us up. From the beginning, this has been so. It blocks the way toward others. It straitjackets the imagination and places us behind iron bars.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was perusing the Harvard University bookstore when I came across the book "We are the Leaders We Have Been Looking for" by Eddie Glaude Jr. I was intrigued by the title and so decided to give it a read. It is not a long book, but it is intellectually dense. This is the type of book you may actually need to read twice (or more) before you fully understand it. However, it is definitely worth at least one read, given its weighty subject matter.

Glaude, it seems, writes this book primarily for an African-American audience, although he does not explicitly say so. Glaude draws upon two centuries of scholarship in the area of black political philosophy to communicate the message that we (really, all Americans) should not abdicate our responsibilities in the political sphere to so-called experts, cultural heroes, or influential thinkers. We should do our own reading, our own research, and develop political beliefs grounded solidly in our value set. To communicate this message, Glaude heavily references the writings of Martin Luther King, Jr, Malcolm X, and Ella Baker, among others, to persuade the reader to his argument. And I believe he does a very good job with this approach.

This book is one that makes you think, makes you sit with complicated ideas, and encourages you to question your own long-held belief system. This book is not for those looking for light reading, despite its short length. Glaude's book is really good, and I believe it will join other important books in the evolving canon of literature around how the African-American community engages in politics.

[Kiki Denis · Rating 5 out of 5]

"We Are the Leaders We Have Been Looking For" by Eddie S. Glaude Jr. is a profound and thought-provoking philosophical gem. Drawing on the works of John Dewey, James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, Emerson, and others, Glaude challenges us to move beyond their ideas and philosophies and instead look within ourselves. He encourages us to discover our own inner strength—both as individuals and as part of a self-recreating, expanding consciousness that dares to imagine a kinder, more just America—and, by extension, a better world.
Glaude's call is ambitious, yet it resonates deeply because it is delivered with gentleness, honesty, and urgency. For him, it’s personal—shaped by his upbringing and his deep concern for people of all colors and backgrounds. His commitment to “democratize the prophetic” through imagination and inner reevaluation is profoundly convincing. As we read—and re-read—this book, we are reminded that “…the wings belong to us, still.”

[D. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was my first by Eddie Glaude. I found his writing to be provocative and thoughtful. Yet, this book is very philosophical and, at times, it is far too dense for the average non-academic reader and lacked pace for anyone in a hurry. As a result, I picked up and put down this book many times over the course of a year, yet thoroughly enjoyed his commentary when I had time and attention to appreciate it. The overarching thesis seems to be that we, as a community, must take responsibility for our politics and our future. Glaude illustrates this point with chapters on Dr. King, Malcolm X, and Ella Baker and, by the end of his book, you believe that his thesis is generally well supported.

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thought-provoking and intriguing. I'm not sure I always agree with his ultimate political conclusions, but there's a lot to like and find inspiring in this short (but dense and challenging and carefully considered) book.
Chapters on Dr. King, Malcolm X, and Ella Baker explore the role of imagination in building a better world and challenge people to rely more on joint action and less on following decisions made by charismatic leaders seen as meaningfully different from their followers.
It was a pleasure to think through these ideas even though I think I'd land in a different place ultimately, and I'm glad I read the book.

[Shiree · Rating 3 out of 5]

Philosophy has always been a hard read for me since my brain likes to think linearly, so the 3 stars may be just me. Starting on page 79, he roped me in with a quote by Ella Baker, and now I am looking for books to read about her life.
Glaude's in-depth research and use of a broad range of historical and modern philosophers, activists, and writers adds validation to his arguments.
This is a good history lesson for those who aren't Black. It is a great lesson for all, that our republic is about its people bending the arc towards justice and equality, through community, not relying on a hero or savior to rescue us.

[Andrew Konstantaras · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very Insightful but …

There is no question in my mind that Mr. Glaude is brilliant, the book clearly demonstrates his deep knowledge and understanding. I would have liked to hear more of his voice as opposed to his use of other scholars and sources. The book felt more like a collage as opposed to his insights and vision. I believe his use of all the other source proves his artistry but filtering it through so many quotes and references made it harder to digest (at least for me).

[Amelia · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was more academic than I expected. Not something you can breeze through while falling asleep. He made some thought-provoking comments about democracy and hero worship, but it felt like something I would read in college and write a paper about, not a book that would immediately resonate or that I would automatically recommend to others. Maybe that's the point, is that he wants you to sit with it, reread it, mull it over, discuss it, and explore the themes he broaches in his heavy referencing of the work of others.

[David Barrington · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm sure I should have rated this book higher. I didn't get as much from this book as a could/should have, because obviously I didn't take the right pre-reqs before taking this course from Professor Glaude. Now I've got a list of authors and a list of philosophers to read, and then I will probably come back and read again. I will still turn on the TV every time I notice Dr. Glaude is going to be on.

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

The title intrigued me, but the book was disappointing, full of overly academic language and abstract allusion to sources. Although I liked the narrative sections as well as the final piece, “A Thicket of Thorns,” on faith and religion, much of this book was inaccessible to me. I greatly admired Eddie Glaude’s recent book BEGIN AGAIN, and I hope Glaude keeps writing in that same vein of rich, personal engagement with his subject.

[Don Gubler · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a work of profound and dedicated scholarship. It will require careful study to understand any measure of it’s profundity. It is sad to think how so much has been squandered and continues to be ignored of what could have multiplied the greatness of our country. It is a prophetic vision of what we all can do to become what we are capable of.

[Desmond · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a leader that focuses on building teams, this was an excellent correlation to the times that affect the country. I found the parallels both refreshing yet challenging. I’m inspired to continue moving towards being a better leader and citizen.

[Emily Feldman · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5. interesting format. each section was connected to a prominent historical black leader & is an essay style reflection

some of my favorite quotes

To act in this world is to act with possibility and suffering

… can inspire and enslave

A better world depends on us

[Marla · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very professorial, and written for his audience. Yet fitting our times.

[Jessica Romero · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great book for anyone looking to become more of a leader. A good read.

[Rafael Suleiman · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good book on our current political scene.

[Nancy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Too philosophical for my reading. Was hoping for a similar style writing that Prof Glaude had written in his other books that I have read. This book had me thinking more than I had anticipated.