The Making of Black Marxism

Abstract

Abstract The well-known shortcomings of the writings of Marx and Engels have given rise to the Marxist tradition that continually reconstructs itself to accommodate the challenges it meets in different places at different times. Thus the Marxist tradition has sprouted a succession of branches. One of the most enduring is Black Marxism, a Marxism that adopts the standpoint of racially subjugated populations. This essay considers W. E. B. Du Bois and Frantz Fanon as representative of this tradition. Despite their divergent biographies, they share important features and objects of analysis. Both made a radical shift from a phenomenology of racism to Black Marxism, which is represented by their iconic works Black Reconstruction in America and The Wretched of the Earth. Moreover, both systematically incorporated “race” into their accounts of the antecedents, processes, and outcomes of revolution. Yet they also diverge in key respects: Fanon focused on class struggle on the dark side of the color line while Du Bois focused on the class struggle on the white side of the color line; and while Fanon tended to homogenize the forces of colonial domination, Du Bois tended to homogenize the agency of the racially subjugated. Comparing these two Black Marxists highlights the strengths and limitations of each, while at the same time underlining the vitality of their shared Black Marxism as a truly global project.