Futures of Black Radicalism

by Gaye Theresa Johnson (Editor), Alex Lubin (Editor)

Overview

With racial justice struggles on the rise, a probing collection considers the past and future of Black radicalism

Black rebellion has returned. Dramatic protests have risen up in scores of cities and campuses; there is renewed engagement with the history of Black radical movements and thought. Here, key intellectuals—inspired by the new movements and by the seminal work of the scholar Cedric J. Robinson—recall the powerful tradition of Black radicalism while defining new directions for the activists and thinkers it inspires.

In a time when activists in Ferguson, Palestine, Baltimore, and Hong Kong immediately connect across vast distances, this book makes clear that new Black radical politics is thoroughly internationalist and redraws the links between Black resistance and anti-capitalism. Featuring the key voices in this new intellectual wave, this collection outlines one of the most vibrant areas of thought today.

With contributions from Greg Burris, Jordan T. Camp, Angela Davis, Ruth Wilson Gilmore, Avery F. Gordon, Stefano Harney, Christina Heatherton, Robin D.G. Kelley, George Lipsitz, Fred Moten, Paul Ortiz, Steven Osuna, Kwame M. Phillips, Shana L. Redmond, Cedric J. Robinson, Elizabeth P. Robinson, Nikhil Pal Singh, Damien M. Sojoyner, Darryl C. Thomas, and Françoise Vergès.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781784787578
Publisher:	Verso Books
Publication date:	08/29/2017
Sold by:	Penguin Random House Publisher Services
Format:	eBook
Pages:	272
Sales rank:	745,401
File size:	719 KB

About the Author

Gaye Theresa Johnson is Associate Professor of Black and Chicana/o Studies at UCLA and author of Spaces of Conflict, Sounds of Solidarity: Music, Race, and Spatial Entitlement in Los Angeles. 

Alex Lubin is Professor and Chair of American Studies at the University of New Mexico and author of Geographies of Liberation: The Making of an Afro-Arab Political Imaginary and Romance and Rights: The Politics of Interracial Intimacy, 1945–1954.

Table of Contents

Preface Cedric J. Robinson Elizabeth P. Robinson 1

Introduction Gaye Theresa Johnson Alex Lubin 9

Part 1 Racial Capitalism

1 Class Suicide: The Black Radical Tradition, Radical Scholarship, and the Neoliberal Turn Steven Osuna 21

2 On Race, Violence, and "So-Called Primitive Accumulation" Nikhil Pal Singh 39

3 Dissonance in Time: (Un)Making and (Re)Mapping of Blackness Damien M. Sojoyner 59

4 Racial Capitalocene Françoise Vergès 72

5 Improvement and Preservation: Or, Usufruct and Use Stefano Harney Fred Moten 83

Part 2 The Black Radical Tradition

6 The World We Want: An Interview with Cedric and Elizabeth Robinson Jordan T. Camp Christina Heatherton 95

7 What Is This Black in the Black Radical Tradition? George Lipsitz 108

8 Birth of a (Zionist) Nation: Black Radicalism and the Future of Palestine Greg Burris 120

9 Anti-Imperialism as a Way of Life: Emancipatory Internationalism and the Black Radical Tradition in the Americas Paul Ortiz 133

10 Cedric J. Robinson's Meditation on Malcolm X's Black Internationalism and the Future of the Black Radical Tradition Darryl C. Thomas 148

Part 3 Imagining the Future

11 "It's Hard to Stop Rebels That Time Travel": Democratic Living and the Radical Reimaginmg of Old Worlds H. L. T. Quan 173

12 The Bruise Blues Avery F. Gordon 194

13 "The People Who Keep on Going": A Listening Party, Vol. I Shana L Redmond Kwame M. Phillips 206

14 Abolition Geography and the Problem of Innocence Ruth Wilson Gilmore 225

15 An Interview on the Futures of Black Radicalism Angela Davis 241

Part 4 Afterwords

16 Cedric People Erica Edwards 251

17 Winston Whiteside and the Politics of the Possible Robin D. G. Kelley 255

Acknowledgements 263

Contributor Bios 265

Editorial Reviews

Cedric Robinson was a towering intellectual and courageous activist in the grand tradition of W.E.B Du Bois. In these bleak times, it is imperative to keep his legacy alive and build on his work and witness. This book meets this imperative in a powerful way!”
—Cornel West, author of The Radical King

“In America, issues of race, poverty, and injustice haunt our nation. Futures of Black Radicalism examines causes and resolutions of these troubling challenges. The need for radical thinking has never been more evident. To this end, this book is not just a gift; it is a necessity.”
—Harry Belafonte

“An astonishing gathering of essays and interviews featuring leading and emerging radical intellectuals.”
—David Roediger, author of Class, Race, and Marxism

“What stands out about this book is the richness of intellectual discourse within its pages. A variety of historians, sociologists, and other scholars all tackle a central question: what, precisely, does the Black Radical Tradition say about life in the twenty-first century?”
—Robert Greene III, Society for US Intellectual History Blog

From the Publisher