Black Political Thought

Catalog description

Throughout the entire history of Black life and contact with what we call "The West," Blacks throughout the African diaspora have interrogated, analyzed and problem-solved questions of oppression, freedom and justice. How, exactly, did Black people, to paraphrase W.E.B. DuBois, become "a problem?" What role do politics, history, law, economics and culture play in problem-solving racial oppression and securing freedom and justice? How do interrelated social dynamics (such as race, ethnicity, class, gender, sexuality, etc.) shape and reflect Black political demands and mobilization? What is the most appropriate lens through which Black intellectuals, both organic and academically credentialed, should analyze and interrogate the persistence of anti-black violence and discrimination? In short, how do Black people finally get free? In this course, we will examine some of the most salient of these reflections and the multiple traditions of Black political thought they represent. Students will develop their ability to critically assess disparate articulations of the relationship between domination, freedom and justice in Black political thought from the 18th century to the present. In doing so, students will develop a well-rounded view of this expansive literature while interrogating their own political and philosophical commitments.