Racial ambiguity shaped Black radical politics in the 1920s

Evidence

Briggs, himself, represents an interesting instance of the individual significance of the social contradictions of the United States and the West Indies. Briggs was phenotypically European. Though once he and Garvey became political enemies Garvey would accuse Briggs of being a white men “passing” for a Black, this ironically was put to some good use by the UNIA. “Passing” as white, Briggs bought a ship for the UNIA in 1924. This was a part of an attempt by Briggs to reconcile the UNIA, the Brotherhood, and the CPUSA. This was three years after the Brotherhood had been expelled from the UNIA by convention vote. Briggs, reportedly, was quite sensitive about his complexion, which may account, in part, for his severe speech impediment and the difficulty he encountered earlier in locating a people with which to identify. — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 2245

Categorization

• XREF: Ties to Robinson’s larger argument about the Black radical tradition forming from the Atlantic slavery diaspora, where ‘phenotype’ and national identity were constructed, not given.
• QUESTION: What exactly was Briggs’s critique of Garveyism that cost the Brotherhood its UNIA membership? The chapter notes the expulsion but not the doctrinal break.