The Black Marxism: The Black Radical Tradition Working Definition Essay

One of Cedric Robinson’s signal contributions in Black Marxism is his conceptualization of the origins, cultural form, and ideational foundations of the Black Radical Tradition. In rich detail, Robinson explains how this tradition emerged out of the cultural logic of African worldviews and into the political cauldron of Western societal development, particularly the capitalist world-system, itself a feature of the broader idea of European modernity. As important as this conceptualization is and has been, many popular notions of the Black Radical Tradition or Black radicalism circumvent Robinson’s theoretical intervention. The fundamental question driving the thinking underpinning this assignment is a consideration of how Black radicalism has been defined popularly vis-à-vis the conceptual work of Cedric Robinson in his Black Marxism and other works (as well as the works that explicitly engage and extend his). The objective of the essay is to develop an extended foray into what makes Robinson’s idea of the Black Radical Tradition unique and the implications this might have for “disciplinary Africana Studies.”19 In answering this question it may be necessary to engage popular renderings of Black radicalism to compare and contrast with Robinson’s work.20 As Black radicalism becomes a buzzword once again in today’s political climate, it is necessary that we achieve a level of clarity about what makes Black thought what it is and has been.