E.P. Thompson’s classic English working-class study nearly erased Black presence.
Evidence
- Thompson himself, if I recall correctly, mentions Blacks in his study of late eighteenth and early nineteenth century English working classes on only two occasions! One of these instances is his reference to a Black artisan; the other is the appearance of a Black man as a representation of Satan in a nightmare recalled by a dissident minister. — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 1546
Categorization
- ADDENDUM: This supports a pattern of erasure of non-white participants from foundational labor histories, connectable to Black radical tradition’s invisibility in orthodox Marxism.
- STORYSTEM: The image of a Black man cast as Satan in a dissident minister’s nightmare is a vivid seed for fiction on how racial symbolism infiltrates even radical white consciousness.