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Slavery Was Crucial for the Development of Capitalism

Robin Blackburn, Owen Dowling Jacobin
Historian Robin Blackburn has completed a trilogy of books that provide a comprehensive Marxist account of slavery in the New World. He spoke to Jacobin about the intimate links between the slave systems in the Americas and the origins of capitalism.

Percival Everett on American Fiction and Rewriting Huckleberry Finn

David Shariatmadari Guardian
‘I’d love a scathing review’ says novelist Percival Everett. His work triumphed at the Oscars, but he isn’t interested in acclaim. He talks to the Guardian about race, taking on Mark Twain and why there’s nothing worse than preaching to the choir.

Do It Yourself, Brother: Cultural Autonomy and the New Thing

Christian Noakes Monthly Review
The story of the struggle to liberate jazz from the exploitative, white-controlled music industry in 1950s, the seminal events of the movement and backlash from white civil society and the legacy of Black cultural autonomy and resistance.

The Black Box of Race

Henry Louis Gates Jr. The Atlantic
In a circumscribed universe, Black Americans have ceaselessly reinvented themselves.

How the UAW Broke Ford’s Stranglehold Over Black Detroit

Paul Prescod Jacobin
In the early 1900s, Ford Motor Company commanded strong loyalty from Detroit’s black workers. But the United Auto Workers broke Ford’s stranglehold through patient organizing, cementing an alliance that would bear fruit for decades.

Racism and Race – The John Roberts Two-Step

Jamelle Bouie New York Times
The Roberts two-step. He takes racism, a system of subjugation and social control, and removes the racists. What’s left is the mark of racism - race. A landmark case about the legitimacy of race hierarchy becomes, the use of race in school placement.

The Black Radical Tradition Can Guide Our Struggles Against Oppression

Robin D. G. Kelley, Daniel Denvir Jacobin
Historian Robin D. G. Kelley has uncovered a tradition of African American radicalism that was — and is — a crucial part of the American left’s history. He talks to Jacobin about the need to connect struggles against racism and class oppression.
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