Summary
Contents
This unique collection brings together selections from the work that has defined our understanding of racism. Every significant contribution to the analysis of racism over the past 50 years are comprised in this one book, including extracts from Myrdal's An American Dilemma, Cox's Marxist theory, Carmichael and Hamilton's introduction of the term ‘institutional racism’ and recent textual analyses. Ordered chronologically, so that the reader can work through the narrative of changes coherently, each contribution is introduced by the editors and the whole collection is bound together by introductory and concluding chapters. The result is an unparalleled teaching and study resource. No other book presents the highlights, range and complexity of the various attempts to unravel racism, in such a comprehensive and panoramic way.
Chapter 11: Black Power: The Politics of Liberation in America
Black Power: The Politics of Liberation in America
The term institutional racism has become part of our vocabulary. It was first used in a systematic manner by Stokely Carmichael and Charles V. Hamilton in their Black Power: The Politics of Liberation in America, which was as much a prospectus as an argument. First published in 1967, it gave theoretical substance to what was in danger of becoming a mere slogan. ‘Black Power’ was an exhortation for black people to exercise control over their lives. ‘If we fail to do this, we face continued subjection to a white society that has no intention of giving up willingly or easily its position of priority and authority,’ wrote ...
