The Niggerati was possibly the first fully antiracist intellectual group in American history.

Evidence

A CADRE OF Harlem’s young and talented Black artists refused to take direction from W. E. B. Du Bois. They called themselves the “Niggerati” in 1926, clearly showing little interest in assimilation or in media suasion. … These youngsters were formulating a literary and social space of total artistic freedom and tolerance for differences in culture, color, class, gender, race, and sexuality. The Niggerati was quite possibly the first known fully antiracist intellectual and artistic group in American history. Its members rejected class racism, cultural racism, historical racism, gender racism, and even queer racism, as some members were homosexual or bisexual. — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning, 839

Categorization

• DEFINE: Offers the book’s clearest concrete prototype of the antiracist position: refusal of assimilation and media suasion, full tolerance across every identity axis.
• XREF: The Niggerati sits opposite Booker T. Washington’s accommodationism from earlier chapters, demonstrating the full three-way scheme in action within one generation.
• STORYSTEM: The image of ‘leading double lives in closeted homophobic America’ — publicly affirming artistry while privately affirming queer desire — is a charged fiction premise in itself.