This article reviews issues and problems in conventional studies of African American traditions of civic responsibility. This area of philanthropic studies is deeply flawed by inadequate conceptions of the American nation state and by racialized political ideologies and stereotypes. The author critiques conventional interpretations of African American civic responsibilities and African American civic cultures and suggests alternative conceptual frameworks and new research areas. The purpose is to raise more questions than answers in a research area that remains seriously underdeveloped because of ideological intrusions, racial stereotyping, and the continued dominance of structural functionalism in attempts by American social scientists to interpret the nature of ethnicity and culture in American society.
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