Black Marxism: Introductory Comments from Ron Strickland

During the first half of the twentieth century Marxism attracted many black intellectuals in the U. S., some of whom came to reject Marxism as inadequate to the demands of anti-racist struggle or even complicit in the ideology of racism. Cedric Robinson's book, Black Marxism, takes this point of view. Though I disagree with Robinson's conclusions, I think the critique of the Marxist tradition from anti-racist and anti-colonialist perspectives should not be dismissed lightly. I've assigned several chapters of Black Marxism because the book offers useful introductions to the relationships of figures like Richard Wright and W. E. B. Dubois to Marxist critique and political action. Robinson is at pains to argue that Marxism is inadequate to resist racial oppression because (1) racial oppression existed in western culture long before the capitalist epoch which Marxism is concerned with, and (2) Marxism subsumes racial oppression under the category of class oppression. Greg Meyerson's essay critiques Robinson's argument on these two counts, arguing that Robinson essentializes race, on the one hand and that Robinson assumes, incorrectly, that Marxism essentializes class on the other hand.