Jeffrey B. Perry

In Theodore W. Allen, "The Invention of the White Race" vol. 1 "Racial Oppression and Social Control," p. 9, Allen writes --

 

Historians are cautioned to avoid the vice of "presentism," that is, the assignment of motivations for behavior to suit current vogues without proof that those motivations actually figured in the needs and feelings of the people of the historic period under consideration. One common example of this error is that of casually classing Negroes in colonial Anglo-America as "slaves" from the first mention in 1619 on, decades before there is any justification in the record for such a generalization.

August 23, 2021, marks the 102nd anniversary of the birth of the late Theodore W. Allen (1919–2005), one of he most important thinkers on race and class in the 20th century.

He pioneered a class struggle-based analysis of "white skin privilege" in the mid-1960s, consistently emphasized the centrality of struggle against white supremacy to social change efforts in the U.S., and authored the seminal two-volume classic "The Invention of the White Race" in the 1990s.

His work continues to grow in importance and Verso Books is scheduled to publish a new, third edition of his "The Invention of the White Race" by the end of the year and my two-hour YouTube video on Allen and that work (which opens with 12 minutes on Hubert Harrison) has recently passed 271,000 views.

Allen's work merits very careful reading and study and those interested in radical social change are encouraged to undertake that task and to share his work with others.

For info on Allen see HERE

 

Theodore W. Allen, author of ''The Invention of the White Race,'' audio interview by Chad Pearson (in two parts) May 13 and 20, 2004 (scroll down to May 13, 2004 for Part 1 and May 20, 2004 for Part 2) is available by CLICKING HERE!
For more Information on "The Invention of the White Race" CLICK HERE!
 Read More