Black Marxism: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition
Black Marxism: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition, first published in 1983 and again in 2000 is a book written by the scholar Cedric Robinson. Influenced by many African American and Black economists and radical thinkers of the 19th century, Robinson creates a historical-critical analysis of Marxism and the Eurocentric tradition from which it evolved.[1] The book does not build from nor reiterate Marxist thought, but rather introduces racial analysis to the Marxist tradition.
Synopsis
Black Marxism is separated into three parts, the first being, “The Emergence and Limitations of Europe Radicalism;” the second, “The Roots of Black Radicalism;” and the third, “Black Radicalism and Marxist Theory.” Through these sections, Robinson critiques Marxism and its reliance on determinism. The primary theories which result from Black Marxism are racial capitalism and the Black radical tradition.
The book begins by introducing the theory of racial capitalism, the process of deriving social and economic value from the racial identity of another person.[2] Robinson develops this term to correct what he thinks led Karl Marx and Freidrich Engels to mistakenly believe that European bourgeois society would rationalize social relations.[3] Robinson says that “As a material force… racialism would inevitably permeate the social structures emergent from capitalism. I have used the term ‘racial capitalism’ to refer ... to the subsequent structure as a historical agency.”[4] He argues that all capitalism is structured by ‘racialism’ and produces inequalities among groups.[5] Thus, all capitalism should be recognized as racial capitalism.
In addition to theorizing on racial capitalism, Black Marxism aims to elucidate the Black radical tradition of the past, present, and future. Robinson recounts several acts of resistance, from seventeenth-century maroon communities in the Americas to twentieth-century national liberation struggles, looking to scholars W. E. B. Du Bois and C. L. R. James to exemplify the tradition.[6][3]
Publication
Black Marxism was first published in 1983 by Zed Books. It was republished in 2000 by the University of North Carolina Press. Robin D. G. Kelley provides an introduction to the 2000 publication of Black Marxism. Black Marxism’s second publishing sparked conversations that proved to be incredibly relevant to twenty-first-century social movements, ushering in both praise and critique from within the American political left.[4]
Legacy
Several writers have demonstrated and written about Black Marxism’s relevance for twenty-first-century issues.
The Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement grounds its structural analysis of Black oppression in racial capitalism. Specifically, the organization Movement for Black Lives (M4BL) names racial capitalism in its 2020 policy platform, “A Vision for Black Lives.”[5] Scholars find it noteworthy that BLM continues to reach back to Black Marxism, suggesting that the book's theories have great significance for black radical movements of the past and present. Moreover, contemporary radical scholars champion Black Marxism for the extent to which it argues the link between contemporary anti-Black violence and historical structures of oppression.[5][7]
The publication of Black Marxism has directed the agenda of Africana studies as well as influenced the definition of radicalism in Black scholarship.[8][9] The Black radical tradition provides a rich resource for future challenges of Africana studies and it acts as a bridge, helping academics to “to understand the conceptual vocabulary used by ... activist-intellectuals who research and teach about the relationship between race and class … [and] to identify the concepts needed to transform the conditions under which the radical tradition now operates."[9]
Gregory Meyerson has claimed that Black Marxism misinterprets Marxian economics by equating class analysis with an analysis of capitalism, thus conflating too many factors.[10] According to this critique, contra Black Marxism, Marx's historical account, although Eurocentric, does not erase Black radical tradition and is not rooted itself in racism.
References
- Tatum, Travis (2005). "Reflections on Black Marxism". Race & Class. 47: 71–76 – via Sagepub.
- "Racial Capitalism". harvardlawreview.org. Retrieved 2020-12-07.
- Melamed, Jodi (2015). "Racial Capitalism". Critical Ethnic Studies. 1 (1): 76–85. doi:10.5749/jcritethnstud.1.1.0076. ISSN 2373-5031.
- Robinson, Cedric (2000) [1983]. Black Marxism: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition. University of North Carolina Press.
- Issar, Siddhant (2020-04-29). "Listening to Black lives matter: racial capitalism and the critique of neoliberalism". Contemporary Political Theory. doi:10.1057/s41296-020-00399-0. ISSN 1476-9336.
- Thomas, Greg (2001). "SEX/SEXUALITY & SYLVIA WYNTER'S "BEYOND...": ANTI-COLONIAL IDEAS IN "BLACK RADICAL TRADITION"". Journal of West Indian Literature. 10 (1/2): 92–118. ISSN 0258-8501.
- "POLICY PLATFORMS – M4BL". Retrieved 2020-12-07.
- Farmer, Ashley D. (2016). "Mothers of Pan-Africanism: Audley Moore and Dara Abubakari". Women, Gender, and Families of Color. 4 (2): 274–295. doi:10.5406/womgenfamcol.4.2.0274. ISSN 2326-0939.
- Santiago-Valles, W. F. (2005). "Africana Studies and the research collective". Race & Class. 47: 100–110 – via Sagepub.
- Meyerson, Gregory. "Rethinking Black Marxism: Reflections on Cedric Robinson and others". Cite journal requires
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