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A review by garberdog
Black Marxism: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition by Cedric J. Robinson
4.0
I read this for fun with a friend who is by far better informed about Marxist theory than I am. Which was important, because although Black Marxism is a rewarding read, it is at times a dense and difficult one.
The argument is that an autonomous, Black radical tradition exists outside of Western Marxism. This book offers an important corrective to hegemonic Western historiography and white Marxism.
However, the author somehow failed to discuss gender or sexuality in any significant way, making for an androcentric text that ignores the crucial contributions of Black women to the struggle for Black liberation. As my friend pointed out, Ida B. Wells did the essential work of exposing lynching as white supremacist violence. How could any account of a Black radical tradition overlook her work, as just one example of many. This was a deeply disappointing component of the text. As such, I would recommend this book be supplemented with Dorothy Robert's Killing the Black Body, Angela Y. Davis' Women, Race, & Class, and Patricia Hill Collins' Black Feminist Thought as necessary complements to this text.
The argument is that an autonomous, Black radical tradition exists outside of Western Marxism. This book offers an important corrective to hegemonic Western historiography and white Marxism.
However, the author somehow failed to discuss gender or sexuality in any significant way, making for an androcentric text that ignores the crucial contributions of Black women to the struggle for Black liberation. As my friend pointed out, Ida B. Wells did the essential work of exposing lynching as white supremacist violence. How could any account of a Black radical tradition overlook her work, as just one example of many. This was a deeply disappointing component of the text. As such, I would recommend this book be supplemented with Dorothy Robert's Killing the Black Body, Angela Y. Davis' Women, Race, & Class, and Patricia Hill Collins' Black Feminist Thought as necessary complements to this text.