On the desegregation of the visible elite; or,beware of the emperor's new helpers: He or she may look like you or me

In this article an analysis is offered as regards the emergence, beginning in the late 1980s, of a new set of elites. While the desegregation of the elites is acknowledged to have begun earlier, as a consequence of the irresistible demands of the civil rights movement and women's movement for inclusion in decision-making positions, it is argued that there has been an increasing cooptation of the intent of these affirmative action appointments. It is posited that the traditional elites, having initially selected qualified Blacks and qualified women, without regard to personal political ideology, are increasingly selecting more conservative and/or opportunistic persons. As might be argued, for example, in the appointment of Sandra Day O'Connor and Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court of the United States, these new elites, in government, education, industry, etc., while fitting a desegregating gender and/or complexion criteria, are ideologically closer to the old elites. They are, it is additionally argued, in a domestic neocolonial analogy to the African decolonization experience, to temporarily elongate the legitimacy of the old regime because they may be identified with by people who share their characteristic. The author nevertheless presents reasons why he believes this may be a limiting development in the short range, but a positive development in the long range in requiring a more deracialized and degenderized definition of oppression and oppressors and why this may reignite the pursuit of social and economic justice for all.