Black (the Black)

A collective and political characterization of Black people as a historical, cultural, and philosophical category—used in Black radical thought to describe the Black masses as the authentic source of cultural tradition and to analyze their social position as overdetermined from without. The term appears in discussions of the Black radical tradition and in phenomenological analysis of Black subjectivity and personhood under white supremacy.

Claims that use this term

• The Black masses, not the intelligentsia, were the true source of the tradition.
• The Black radical tradition derives from its own cultural synthesis, not imported theory.
• The Black man needs white authorization even to accept love.
• The Black man is overdetermined from without, enslaved by appearance
• The Black radical tradition produced its individual leaders rather than vice versa
• The Black radical tradition challenged Western radicalism’s assumptions about capitalism and ideology