What is Africa to me
Copper sun or scarlet sea,
Jungle star or jungle track,
Strong bronzed men, or regal black
Women from whose loins I sprang
When the birds of Eden sang?
One three centuries removed
From the scenes his fathers loved
Spicy grove, cinnamon tree
What is Africa tome?
-- Countee Cullen1
In debating the question “Whence Black Studies?” the framework within which we define our history and ourselves is critically important. I originally engaged the intellectual battle over internal colonialism theory because the dominant sociological analyses of race have mostly de-emphasized or ignored historical dynamics except to frame them as “what’s past.” In recasting internal colonialism theory, I seek not only to attack the culture-of-poverty approach, but also to ask hard questions of some past nationalist interpretations of internal colonialism.
Materialist philosophical inquiry into African American Studies falls within the orbit of the philosophy of African American Studies. The philosophy of African American Studies is, in turn, both a subfield of philosophy and a discipline within the interdisciplinary scope of African American Studies (AAS). Philosophy’s relationship to AAS is dialectical. The dialectical character of the philosophy of African American Studies lies in the fact that it is both part and parcel of AAS and, at the same time, a method of inquiry into it.
The Riddles of Revolutionary Fanonism – Much More Than Marxism in Blackface: Fanon’s Critical Modification of Marxism in the Anti-Imperialist Interests of Africa and Africans, Among the Other Wretched of the Earth
Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness (New York: New Press, 2010).
This book is not for everyone. I have a specific audience in mind—people who care deeply about racial justice but who, for any number of reasons, do not yet appreciate the magnitude of the crisis faced by communities of color as a result of mass incarceration.
Safiya Bukhari, The War Before: The True Life Story of Becoming a Black Panther, Keeping the Faith in Prison, and Fighting for Those Left Behind (New York: Feminist Press, 2010).
In assessing the state of African American Studies from its origins as the academic wing of the Black liberation movements of the 1960s to the onset of the presidency of Barack Obama, it may be helpful to consider Max Weber’s classic analyses of bureaucracy and also the insights of C.L.R. James on the relationship of intellectuals to mass social movements.
Routinization of charisma/bureaucratizion
Originally, this special issue of Socialism and Democracy had as its focus to demonstrate the continued relevance of socialism and Marxism to African American Studies (AAS). As we complete this issue, we are witnessing, from Wisconsin to California, concerted attacks on the working class which challenge the very notion that workers have the right to form unions. The assault on collective bargaining is no less than a threat to the livelihood of workers in this country.
Jeffrey B. Perry, Hubert Harrison: The Voice of Harlem Radicalism, 1883-1918. New York: Columbia University Press, 2009.
The purpose of this special issue of Socialism and Democracy is to show the relevance of a left perspective to the broad field of African American Studies. As will be apparent, we hold strongly differing views as to how such a perspective should be defined and in what terms it should be expressed. This divergence is reflected both in our own articles and in many of the other articles we present.