Antinomies of Black Marxism

Salvador Rangel is a formerly undocumented migrant worker from Mexico who spent many years working in construction sites and factory shop floors throughout the U.S. South. He currently works as Assistant Professor of Sociology at Swarthmore College. His academic and public scholarship deals with labor, migration, citizenship, and global capitalism. William I. Robinson is Distinguished Professor of Sociology, Global and International Studies, and Latin American Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is affiliated with the Chicano/a Studies Department. He is the author of numerous award‑winning books, including most recently The Global Police State (2020) and Epochal Crisis: The Exhaustion of Global Capitalism (2025).

"There is a real need for this book, which will make an important Marxist intervention in various debates – not just the time-honoured race-class debate, but specifically in evaluations of Cedric Robinson’s enormously influential notions of ‘racial capitalism’ and the ‘Black Radical Tradition.’ Noting that, despite its misleading title, Black Marxism is actually an attack on Marxism, the authors observe that the book has achieved a kind of ‘cult status.’ The writings gathered here expose the reader for the first time to the most cogent Marxist responses that the book has invited since its original publication in 1983."Barbara Foley, Emeritus Distinguished Professor of English at Rutgers University and author of Marxist Literary Criticism Today (2019)"Given the current state of our world, where class exploitation has reached unimaginable levels and fascist politics rule the day, The Antimonies of Black Marxism could not have been better timed. It is a class informed genealogy of the term ‘racial capitalism’ that allows us to see how the term itself, which was offered as an alternative to class politics, is itself a creation of the very dynamic that it purports to have transcended. A truly critical sociology of knowledge, the text not only helps us to understand world (inside and outside the academy) as it is, it gives us the tools we will need to change it."Zine Magubane, Professor of Sociology, Boston College

• Foreword, by Walter Benn Michaels; Introduction: The Crisis of Global Capitalism and the Race Fetish – SALVADOR RANGEL AND WILLIAM I. ROBINSON; 1 Marxism and the Black Struggle: The ‘Class v. Race’ Debate Revisited – AUGUST H. NIMTZ, JR; 2 Rethinking Black Marxism: Reflections on Cedric Robinson – GREGORY MEYERSON; 3 The Shadow of the Plantation – ASAD HAIDER; 4 Sifting the “Stony Soil” of Black Marxism: Cedric Robinson, Richard Wright, and Ellipses of the Black Radical Tradition – JOSEPH G. RAMSEY; 5 The Cult of Cedric Robinson’s Black Marxism: A Proletarian Critique – WILLIAM I. ROBINSON, SALVADOR RANGEL AND HILBOURNE A. WATSON; 6 A Proletarian Critique of Cedric Robinson’s Black Marxism, Take 2 – WILLIAM I. ROBINSON, SALVADOR RANGEL AND HILBOURNE A. WATSON; 7 The Wrong Durée: The Politics of Cedric J. Robinson’s Racial Capitalism – CEDRIC JOHNSON; 8 Conclusion: Proletarian Power Is Our Only Salvation – SALVADOR RANGEL AND WILLIAM I. ROBINSON