Persons at the bottom of the well, at the other end of the lash/barrel of the gun, who have been subject to diverse forms of domination, exploitation, and human rights abuses have much to teach us about dignity and democracy, peace and conflict, struggle and solidarity. They also have insights to share about the gap between the Enlightenment ideals of freedom, equality, and fraternity and the lived experiences of the colonized, enslaved, and segregated, and on how to pursue radical social and political transformation where injustice, discrimination, and despair remain features of everyday life. This course will expose students to thinkers such as W. E. B. Du Bois, Claudia Jones, Martin Luther King, Jr., Cedric Robinson, Imari Obadele, and Yusuf Naim Kly, who provide distinct, contested, and complex diagnoses about the problems of blacks in American and throughout the African Diaspora, as well as prognoses for how they can be overcome.

This course is in the Comparative OR American Politics subfield.

Class Format:

Seminar