Black intellectuals’ nurture as Blacks outweighed Marxism in forging radical consciousness.

Evidence

There was, however, much more to these radical Black intellectuals than their class origins and the contradictions they experienced consequent to the racial castes of Western civilization. More profoundly than “scientific” Marxism could suggest, they were an element of a historically emergent social force, the Black radical movement. And though intellectually disciplined in such ways as to oppose its conscious realization, their ideological nurturing as Blacks prepared them for its eventual recognition. … Even their discovery of Western radicalism proved to be insufficient. As we have seen, it became necessary to both of them to attempt to bring Marxist theory to bear on a historical phenomenon for which its analytical vocabulary was inadequate. From the moments of these efforts, neither Du Bois nor James, nor Padmore nor Cox could sustain a commitment to orthodox Marxism. — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 1326

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines what ‘Black radical’ means: a historically emergent social force distinct from class origins and from ‘scientific’ Marxism.