cover image Back to Black: Retelling Black Radicalism for the 21st Century

Back to Black: Retelling Black Radicalism for the 21st Century

Kehinde Andrews. Zed, $24.95 (256p) ISBN 978-1-78699-278-9

Andrews (Resisting Racism: Race, Inequality, and the Black Supplementary School Movement), associate professor in sociology at Birmingham City University in England, develops an intriguing analysis of black radical politics in this dense and erudite book that speaks to both British and American issues. He argues that black radicalism is, at its core, nothing short of a revolutionary global movement to upend the status quo that leads to oppressive systems. Throughout the majority of the book, Andrews looks to create a blueprint for black radicalism as a concept and practice by critiquing past attempts that fall short, such as the Pan-African movement, black nationalism, and Marxism. In order to defend his claims about the limitations of black radicalism, he turns to the past, drawing from radical thinkers, such as Malcolm X and Huey P. Newton, and others he defines as nonradical, such as Aimee Cesaire and Marcus Garvey. His critique of the nation-state as the foundation for racial oppression is incisive, and his argument that “Blackness is a political rather than cultural essentialism” usefully resolves contradictions (e.g., between deploring cultural stereotyping in society and reinforcing it in the context of black studies) and exclusions (for example, of LGBTQ black people) in previous theories. This analysis will be of interest to anyone looking for a deep, considered take on liberatory politics. (Sept.)