Black Awakening in Capitalist America: An Analytic History

by Robert L. Allen

Book Overview

Black Awakening in Capitalist America is a classic study of the Black liberation movement of the 1960s. Examining Black Power and black capitalism, the student and radical movements, nationalists and... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0385077181
• ISBN13: 9780385077187
• Release Date: January 1969
• Publisher: Anchor Books
• Length: 305 Pages
• Weight: 0.35 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Allen's "Black Awakening in Capitalist America"

How obtainable is the goal of black equality in America? In addressing this question, Robert Allen first analyzes the history of the social and political contexts of Black Power up to 1969, and then concludes with an interim plan for action until economic, social, and political conditions become conducive for positive revolutionary action. Allen sees the consistent disenfranchisement of black Americans not only socially via racism, but also with regard racism existing as an inherent part of the American political economy. As such, racism will never be alleviated, real equality for blackfolk will never be achieved, until capitalism as an economic system is dismantled. The foundational premise of his study is that black America exists "as a semicolony, or what has been termed domestic colonialism," and is progressing toward "a program of domestic neocolonialism" (2, 8). He aligns the "general economic motivations" of the American capitalist system with that of colonial regimes internationally, to the extent that in both international and domestic contexts political control is established over a subordinate group for the purpose of extracting resources and labor for the economic benefit of the dominant group (11). Neocolonialism, again viewed analogously to international contexts, has been fostered by the establishment of programs funded and sponsored by the white corporate elite and the black bourgeoisie, to act as a co-opting buffer to stave off rebellions by urban, lower and working class black Americans. Allen's second chapter works through the social context of Black Power. He views Malcolm X as "the ideological father of the black power movement" (30). In keeping with colonialist frame, Allen focuses on Malcolm's efforts to place the black liberation struggle within the international context. This connection is further by Malcolm's attempts to address the UN and King's stance against the war in Viet Nam. Stokely Carmichael's definition of Black Power is also introduced at this time. However, Allen notes that "black power initially emerged as an effort to reform the social system," an indication that black militants at the time though more in terms of correcting social "deficiencies" as opposed to advocating for a complete restructuring of the social order (49). While Carmichael's and SNCC's version of black power was essentially more reform-based, Allen notes that the ten-point platform and program of the Black Panther Party was "of great significance because it represented the first concrete attempt to spell out the meaning of black power" (87). Whether the Panthers' reform programs could be viewed as revolutionary, according to Allen, is ultimately subject to questioning the class-based control and purpose of those programs. In a bit of a "long movement" mode, Allen next analyzes "black power as a variant form of black nationalism that has roots that reach deep into the history and social fabric of black America" (89). He traces the linea