https://inciteseminars.com/we-will-be-black/
Incite Seminars
rigorous and rebellious learning
We Will be Black: Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism, and Beyond
Two Saturdays, December 12 & 19th, 2020
12-3pm Eastern (US+Canada). Online via Zoom.
Joshua M. Myers, PhD
PHOTO: Zora Neale Hurston in Haiti, 1937, Library of Congress
“We will be Black not because we are not white, but because of our history and the achievements of our struggle.” – Cedric J. Robinson
Though Cedric J. Robinson was a trained political theorist, his understanding of revolution went beyond the logics of “the political.” Drawing upon his experiences in Black communities, an eclectic range of academic influences, and an organizing background, Robinson developed the idea of a Black Radical tradition. It was a tradition that possessed its own sense of the origins of the problems of the modern world, and how they might be addressed. It is that tradition which was responsible for the forms of resistance that emerged among the enslaved and their descendants.
As a problem for thought, the Black Radical tradition existed in relation to a multiplicity of Western theories of reality and change: political economy, charismatic authority, anarchism, Marxism, as well as the aesthetic.
This two-part seminar will explore the foundations of Black Marxism, utilizing the wider scope of Robinson’s intellectual work, as well as focus on his background in West Oakland’s Black world, his student activism at the University of California, his international travels and experiences, and his work as a media activist. Yet the focus will remain the nature of the Black Radical tradition—not merely one or a collection of individual actors— and how it constitutes one way that human beings have struggled against modern oppressions.
In the first week, we will discuss Robinson’s biography and his early works in political theory, focusing on how these early impulses led to later works and intellectual concerns. In the following week, we will discuss the contexts leading to the development of Black Marxism, before exploring the conceptual intervention that this text made and its lasting impact.
Facilitator: Joshua M. Myers is an Associate Professor of Africana Studies in the Department of Afro-American Studies at Howard University. He is the author of We Are Worth Fighting For: A History of the Howard University Student Protest of 1989 (NYU Press, 2019) and the editor of A Gathering Together: Literary Journal. His intellectual biography of Cedric J. Robinson is forthcoming from Polity Press in late 2021.
Readings (PDFs will be provided prior to the session):
Week One:
Robin D.G. Kelley – “Cedric J. Robinson: The Making of a Black Radical”
Cedric J. Robinson – “Introduction” and “The Order of Politicality” in The Terms of Order
Cedric J. Robinson – “Manichaeism and Multiculturalism”
Cedric J. Robinson – “Preface” in Forgeries of Memory and Meaning
Week Two:
Cedric J. Robinson – “Coming to Terms: The Third World and the Dialectic of Imperialism”
Cedric J. Robinson – “An Inventory of Contemporary Black Politics”
Cedric J. Robinson – “Introduction” and “The Nature of the Black Radical Tradition,” in Black Marxism
Time: Two Saturdays, December 12 & 19th, 12pm-3pm. Online via Zoom.
Seminar Cost:
$60 – Member Ticket for Incite Seminars Patreon
Supports at any level:
$90 – True Cost Ticket
$120 – Generous Supporter Ticket
$30 –Student, Contingent Scholar, Activist Ticket
$1+ – Solidarity Donation Ticket
Registration
Please register by buying a ticket at our Eventbrite page. We are committed to making all our offerings accessible to those who are eager to learn, regardless of financial means. If you have any questions or concerns, please email inciteseminarsphila@gmail.com.
Incite |rouse, urge, encourage, stimulate.
Seminar | breeding ground, plant hothouse; gathering of a small group to discuss a topic intensively.
We create public seminars that incite personal exploration and inspire community action.
Incite Seminars offers an educational experience. We do so by gathering an engaged group of participants for a dynamic exchange of ideas, led by skilled facilitators. All of our facilitators have a deep relationship to a subject or topic through intensive study or practice.
Our sessions are as enjoyably accessible as they are intellectually rigorous. We are certain you will find our seminars refreshingly satisfying, relevant, and even fun. No prior knowledge of a subject is presupposed. Read more about the process here. (Until further notice, all of our sessions are online.)
We are a member-supported, 501(c)3 educational non-profit. We receive no grants or money from outside funders, and are supported through event registrations and Patreon contributions.
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Millennials Are Killing Capitalism
Cedric Robinson, the Black Radical Tradition and Racial Regimes with Joshua Myers
SOUNDCLOUD AUDIO: 1 HOUR AND 11 MINUTES (length of recording)
Follow Millennials Are Killing Capitalism and others on SoundCloud.
Joshua M. Myers is an Assistant Professor of Africana Studies at Howard University. He is the author of We Are Worth Fighting For: A History of the Howard University Student Protest of 1989, which came out in 2019 on NYU Press. He is also the editor of A Gathering Together: Literary Journal. Among his current projects, the book Cedric Robinson: Black Radicalism Beyond The Order of Time. In this episode, Myers gives a brief biography of Cedric Robinson’s early life and discusses the key contributions of Black Marxism: The Making of The Black Radical Tradition. We discuss the Black Radical Tradition and racial capitalism in tension and dialogue with modes of radicalism that emanated from Europe. Along the way Myers debunks several common misreadings of Robinson’s work, and urges readers to engage Black Marxism within and along with the whole body of Robinson’s writing as well as the rich tradition of Black Radical thought.
ABOUT CEDRIC ROBINSON:
(1940-2016):
Dr. Robinson was Professor in the Department of Black Studies and the Department of Political Science at the University of California, Santa Barbara.. He received his BA from the University of California, Berkeley and his MA and Ph.D. from Stanford University. He served as Chair of the Department of Black Studies as well as of Political Science and has also served as the Director of the Center for Black Studies at UCSB. His fields of teaching and research are modern political thought, radical social theory in the African Diaspora, comparative politics, and media and politics. Dr. Robinson is the author of Black Marxism: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition, Terms of Order: Political Science and the Myth of Leadership and Black Movements in America. He is also the author of numerous articles on US, African and Caribbean political thought; Western social theory, film and the press. His most recent work includes The Anthropology of Marxism, a monograph study of the historical and discursive antecedents of Marxism, and research into anti-facism in Africa and the African Diaspora in the 1920s and 1930s.
PHOTO (L-R): Dr. Cedric Robinson and Professor Joshua M. Myers
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