Cobie Kwasi Harris is a political scientist and chair of African American Studies at San Jose State.

In the African-American community, character is measured not in terms of possessions but in terms of what one has overcome.

By this measure, Deng Xiaoping was a great man. He reached the top echelon of power in China, he walked and talked with kings, queens, presidents, and prime ministers.

Yet not once, but twice he was sent to his village and forced to clean toilets -- purged from the party because his vision that ideology could not increase material prosperity, nor satisfy the ordinary peasants' desire to provide a decent life for themselves or their children, created conflict between himself and Chairman Mao. Moreover, during the storm of the Cultural Revolution he also lost a son.

Nevertheless, Deng never changed his conviction that once must "seek truth from facts," and not ideologies.

Deng possessed one trait that all great leaders have. He never allowed himself to be consumed by pity or bitterness. This allowed him to keep his eyes on the prize -- and for him the prize was to transform China into a prosperous, industrial country.

Ultimately, Deng's legacy will be judged in terms of the myth of science and materialism, which was the founding principle of his revolution -- a principle that also demystified Mao's myth that a heroic people can do anything.

The question is not only whether Deng's work will lead to not only economic prosperity but also greater social cohesion. If his principles lead only to a soulless or alienated prosperity, characterized by inequality, massive corruption, social dislocation and indifference to calls for social justice, he will be judged unkindly by history.