A review by outcolder
Black Marxism: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition by Cedric J. Robinson

5.0

Most of the book is about carefully removing threads of Eurocentrism while recovering some history that Imperialism reminds us to forget. I am left wondering if there can be such a thing as Black Marxism. Du Bois is on his own trip, it all has precious little to do with Marx. C.L.R. James is so critical of everything, always siding with the newest splinter group until he arrives at something Marx would find interesting but most Marxists would want to expel from whatever 'international' or 'party' they're cooking up now. Together with Richard Wright, James seems to be saying that the oppressed are going to have to figure it out on their own because any kind of vanguard or revolutionary committee or whatever is going to mess it up. Wright goes a bit further and accuses the Marxian leaders of opportunism, Jealous Rebels who just want to run things themselves and use Marxism to manipulate the masses. Sounds more like Black Anarchism to me, which is anyway how I like it. There's way way way more to it than that but that's all I got for you.