Black revolutionary theory emerged independently from European radical movements

Evidence

Thus opposition to slavery was minimal; in “the absence or extreme weakness of such a tradition,” Black nationalism as a movement was a twentieth-century phenomenon; and the regard accorded to the revolutionary politics of the Black masses has its source in “white” radicalism. In the present chapter we will explore in detail this final thesis: the presumed relationship between Black radicalism and the European radical movement. It is by far the more important of the three propositions associated with the misconception of Black radicalism. Nevertheless, some attention to the habits of historical construction is warranted. It will prove a useful preliminary step, I believe, in our effort to recognize the continuity that exists between the Black rebellions of the previous centuries and the first articulations of a world revolutionary Black theory in the present century. — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 845

Categorization

• SEED: The claim that Black radicalism’s revolutionary politics were wrongly credited to white radicalism could anchor an essay on how historiography assigns intellectual paternity.