Blacks In and Out of the Left

The W. E. B. Du Bois Lectures

by Michael C. Dawson

The radical black left that played a crucial role in twentieth-century struggles for equality and justice has largely disappeared. Michael Dawson investigates the causes and consequences of the decline of black radicalism as a force in American politics and argues that the conventional left has failed to take race sufficiently seriously as a historical force in reshaping American institutions, politics, and civil society.

African Americans have been in the vanguard of progressive social movements throughout American history, but they have been written out of many histories of social liberalism. Focusing on the 1920s and 1930s, as well as the Black Power movement, Dawson examines successive failures of socialists and Marxists to enlist sympathetic blacks, and white leftists’ refusal to fight for the cause of racial equality. Angered by the often outright hostility of the Socialist Party and similar social democratic organizations, black leftists separated themselves from these groups and either turned to the hard left or stayed independent. A generation later, the same phenomenon helped fueled the Black Power movement’s turn toward a variety of black nationalist, Maoist, and other radical political groups.

The 2008 election of Barack Obama notwithstanding, many African Americans still believe they will not realize the fruits of American prosperity any time soon. This pervasive discontent, Dawson suggests, must be mobilized within the black community into active opposition to the social and economic status quo. Black politics needs to find its way back to its radical roots as a vital component of new American progressive movements.

Genres: History, Race, Politics, Nonfiction, Political Science, African American

256 pages, Hardcover

First published April 30, 2013

About the author

Michael C. Dawson is John D. MacArthur Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science and the College at the University of Chicago.

Reviews

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Based on a series of lectures delivered at Harvard University fall of 2009, this book does not read like a monograph but rather an advanced primer (or survey) on the development of radical black politics in the 20th century from someone in a good position to know. Dawson's writing is clear and across four lengthy chapters manages to keep up with all the diverse ideological threads taking place among black radicals in and out of communism, various labor movements, civil rights, black nationalism, black power, and beyond. The strengths of the book lie in its comprehensive review from the '20s to the late-60's, but as Dawson approaches the contemporary certain gaps start to emerge, namely the women's and gay liberation circles gaining strength around the '70s, which he notes as a period of dispersal for the overall project of radical black activism. Published in 2013, Dawson obviously didn't have an opportunity to address Black Lives Matter, though he does touch on Occupy. Looking toward the future, Dawson's tentative optimism is contagious and he believes the world capable of change so long as we recoup the values so critical to radical practice a century ago.

[Tatiana · Rating 5 out of 5]

My greatest take away from this book is that white people's racism has been a huge hindrance for Black political organizing for at least a century (starting in the 1920s with the Communist party).

And that Republicans were able to utilize working white resentment to push their racist agenda that has been going on for centuries.

And many white socialists and communists prioritized being white and openly attacked Black nationalists (and nationalism).

There has never been working class solidarity between whites and Blacks precisely because of their racism and antagonism against Black people.

And even today, white liberals and leftists are STILL racist. And no amount of anti-racist reeducation crockery has changed that.

There are a few examples of why the author thinks the leftist movement in the United States died after the 70s, but to me, if white people werent so racist Black political aims could have been achieved much sooner.

This book was written in 2013, so there isn't much here about Black Twitter and how that is the main/only public space for Black political thinking right now.

But I would say that I'm not convinced Black people online have ultimately been a force of useful political change or political conversations. There is a strong thread of enforcing certain liberal ideology on Twitter that isnt beneficial for Black heterodoxy.

[Nicky · Rating 4 out of 5]

A thought provoking polemic from Michael Dawson. His sympathies with black nationalism cloud the clarity of his analysis at various points, and those were fresh in my mind since I'd just done a bunch of research about anti-racist organizing in the Communist Party. However, Dawson does an admirable job - and a daunting one at that - of charting the decline of the Black left and the overall political left in the U.S. today. He has a compelling set of answers, combining an analysis of the structural roots of Black radical autonomous organizing (a Black counterpublic, involvement in mass movements, and more), the failings of the white left both analytically and organizationally, and the midcentury "sundering" of Black radical leftists from American life, often involving collaboration between Black liberals and the repressive arm of the U.S. state. His solutions and political vision are a clear eyed denunciation of what he calls the "political depression" of our moment, encouraging the very utopian thinking that is derided in most areas of public life. A good read for anyone interested in any of the constituent parts of the title: American politics, Black American politics, the Left, the Black Left, etc.

[JRT · Rating 5 out of 5]

Author Michael Dawson tracks the rise and fall of 20th Century Black radicalism in America in this precise and important book. Broadly, this book details the necessity of Black radicalism as a response to the inadequacy and chauvinism of the white left and the persistent inequality and violence that Black Americans face. A central question for 20th Century radicals was how they should situate their relationships to non-Black leftists, many of whom were openly hostile to centering the cause of Black liberation. Dawson breaks up his analysis of Black radicalism into two periods (Early 20th Century and mid-20th Century), focusing on the differences and similarities between the two periods and why they both ultimately failed to bring about fundamental transformation and liberation. This is a must read for anybody interested in studying and analyzing the large questions of Black liberation and universal emancipation.

[Asher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everyone should read.

[Arturo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Las esquinas y las izquierdas son iguales en to los laos...🤦🏾‍♂️

[Julesreads · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dawson’s lectures-turned-book on black radicalism’s “sundering” from the left somewhere after the Black Power movement of the 1970’s is a tight read—it takes some time to get into its assumptive flow and, obviously, there is always more to know on subjects as large as American leftism, black radicalism, black liberals, black communists and American communists, etc. But, that said, Dawson’s wider reaching points—issues of racism within the left, from communism to the workers’ rights movements—as well as issues within Black radicalism with patriarchy and overlooking the radical black women working within these movements—are all well taken and should illustrate the many issues Marxism (in particular) faces when discussed among the many radical/rights movements in existence in America. Still, it is Dawson’s closing plea, for the resurgence of utopian thinking and action and debate that rings truest. More than a few books I’ve read from contemporary radical perspectives have called for more utopian thinking, less conformist concessions, and against the ever-growing nihilism poisoning society. A very good read with a lot to consider, but also a call-to-arms, at least in an intellectual sense.

[Pascal · Rating 2 out of 5]

A very unimpressive attempt to distill the reasons behind the collapse of the radical Black left after the demise of the Black Panther Party in the early 70s. The analysis is shallow and the pleas to notions such as South Africa style truth commissions and ideas of reparations sound more like wish fulfillment than sound politics as expressed by the author, who is actually a professor of Black politics. One would strain to realize that fact in reading this book. Don't waste your time and just read anything and everything by Adolph Reed, Jr. on the subject of the Black radical left and its demise.

[Tacodisc · Rating 3 out of 5]

Includes excellent notes on the importance of the public sector and unionization, but hardly accounts for contemporary Marxism, among which are organizations that place black liberation at the center of their program (or "pragmatic utopianism") for human emancipation.

[Cecilia Boyers]

really interesting parts but also kind of confusing in some chapters...should have read the book he wrote write before his cuz he uses terminology from it but ya v interesting stuff ugh neoliberalism amiright