Just read Michael A. Gonzales's writing about Greg Tate, which is really more an assessment of the climate for black writers in the post-Tate generation, since Tate was "the man that 'set it off' for a generation of “'reaky-deke cult-nat' journalists, essayists, painters, screenwriters, directors, et al." Gonzales poses a question about why there are still not many black writers on the pages of mags like Esquire and New York Magazine, and I think this is the ongoing question about the unspoken social contruction of the "house style," which is, especially as we continue on in the print crisis, not willing to risk alienating its readership with anything new/controntational/unusual. AKA conservative and reinforcing the powers that have always been...Would Greg Tate get a start in today's media climate?
See also Gonzales's great Stop Smiling interview with Barry Michael Cooper to get a sense of how far the Voice has changed from their late 1980s writerly imperative.
