Most white Americans have little opportunity to learn about what’s on the minds of African Americans, apart from what shows up in the mass media.

And we know that that is seldom an adequate reflection of the subtleties of the black experience.

I, a white American, am an outsider to the black experience, but, unlike most white Americans circumstances bring me into constant contact with young black Americans. I am the adviser of a student newspaper at a historically black university. Sometimes when we work into the early morning hours putting together our beloved Campus Echo, fragments of discourse will fly freely between the students.

And every now and then, if I listen closely, I'll notice that these fragments zero in on some of the big questions — the great ideological themes of the black experience:

Exactly what degree of separation should blacks maintain from whites? Should blacks date whites? How important is it for blacks to maintain their group identity? What is a “black nation” and how important is it to maintain one? Do black women need to stand by their black men, no matter the issue?

What is the real nature of whites? Can they be trusted as partners in the struggle for justice? Is racism a temporary aberration or is it part of human nature? Should blacks take up arms, protest peacefully, or is it better to remain calm and just cast a vote?

Is corporate America a good thing serving blacks’ interests or a bad thing? Is the current version of the American Creed, with its free-market individualism and small government ideology, working for blacks or is it failing them?

Is America the “just and good” state that so many of its white citizens feel it to be? If so, what explains the dire social and economic position so many African Americans face in American society?

Michael Dawson’s “Black Visions: The Roots of Contemporary African-American Political Ideologies,” brilliantly teases out these grand themes for anyone interested in the subtleties of black political ideology.

Dawson, chair of the University of Chicago department of political science and director of the Center for the Study of Race, Politics and Culture, bases “Black Visions” on his work with the National Black Politics Survey, the first national survey ever of African Americans explicitly designed to probe the political ideology and political beliefs of black Americans.

“Black Visions” has been extremely well-received. And for good reason. William Julius Williams, perhaps America’s finest living black sociologist, says that Dawson’s new book is “the most comprehensive and definitive study of African-American political thought ever published.”

This is indeed a pioneering study. It masterfully blends historical interpretation, conceptual sophistication, and empirical survey data to explore the complexity and fluidity of six black ideologies: three in the American liberal tradition — radical egalitarianism, disillusioned liberals, conservatism – and three outside the American liberal tradition — black feminism, black Marxism, and black nationalism.

Dawson deftly moves from the likes of Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass to the likes of Malcom X, Cornell West and rap artist Ice Cube to show how and why structural factors such as social location (class, education, gender, etc.) and type of neighborhood shape the individual’s support for a specific ideological constellation.

Dawson explains how black ideologies have evolved over time and how they sometimes clash, and sometimes reinforce, each other. He explains how black ideologies shape the way blacks feel about their position in American society.

He wants his readers to understand how each ideology — these black visions — came to be and how each shapes black American views on a wide range of issues.

He wants his reader to understand how each ideology informs and shapes the direction of black popular and political movements, and how each has a vision of liberation that in one way or another questions the dominant American Creed, the American liberal tradition with its strong individualism, affection for the free-market, and paranoia of big government.

The big picture that Dawson draws was not earth shattering for this reviewer, and I doubt it will be a revelation to African Americans: Blacks of all ideological orientations continue to see their fate linked to their race.

On issues of taxation, the role of government, fiscal policy and the like, the vast majority of blacks remain on the left and unified. In this regard they are more unified across class lines than whites.

Dawson’s study is strongest when he outlines the cleavages that exist in black America and explains the debate over which tactics and norms should be applied in the struggle for social justice. The “linkage” or “solidarity” African Americans feel, he shows us, is a function of social location and ideological orientation.

Here are the four black visions that Dawson examines: