Black Political Thought

Catalog description

This course is a survey of some of the canonical and some of the most exciting contemporary works in the field of Black political thought. The first half covers foundational texts from Delany, Douglass, Du Bois, and Garvey to Baldwin, King, Malcolm X, and Ellison. It focuses on questions such as: what is the nature of the wrong(s) African Americans have suffered in the United States?; what is a race?; what sustains systems of racist domination and exclusion?; and what is the best way to dismantle them? The second part of the course consists of an examination of contemporary works dealing with questions such as the nature and causes of racism in the 21st century, the future of Black political solidarity, and the claim that Blacks have and will never achieve any sort of emancipation in this world. (GOVT-PT)