The Fourth Epoch of Uncle Tom

This book features one central thesis: policing racial loyalty by enforcing constructive norms strengthens black solidarity, a golden tool in building legal triumphs. Constructive norms discourage actions that hinder a unified people toiling toward a higher existence. A united black citizenry can best construct a path to climb out from the doldrums of American society. Norm violators are dragged before the race to account for their crimes. Their punishment is to withstand debasing condemnation. Uncle Tom is the most brutal.

I also proffer three subsidiary arguments. First, blacks have reexamined what it means to be an Uncle Tom throughout history. Blacks constantly revisit Uncle Tom, ensuring that it fits the era and serves the needs of the race, as individual blacks see it. Betrayal’s appearance is constantly changing, sometimes looking very different from one decade to the next. Uncle Tom is a chameleon.

Second, destructive norms have increasingly predominated over constructive ones. Even though the first period saw destructive norm managers, proper applications of Uncle Tom defined the period. The second era, despite many constructive prosecutions of treachery, witnessed an explosion of blatantly unjustified accusations of betrayal. And during the last era, constructive norm management is an exception to the destructive rule.