Image: The cover of the book is a black background with a bold font with an ombre color that morphs from red to orange, yellow, and green. Across the top is Anarcho, bending down the right side is blackness. About a third of the way down, bent halfway through the sentence again is "notes toward a black anarchism." On the bottom left corner, in smaller letters that morph from red to pink is the author's name: Marquis Bey.
It seems like the perfect time for a release like Anarcho-Blackness: Notes Toward a Black Anarchism by Marquis Bey. With all of the inspiring and brave uprisings for racial justice currently going down, (and the usual false painting of anarchism being composed solely of rich white kids breaking windows for no reason,) amplification of the voices of Black anarchists is critical. When I saw that AK Press was going to be putting out this title, I got pretty excited. There is not nearly enough exposure of the words of Black anarchists out there. The writer is trans as well and thus, I knew this writing would likely be inclusive of all or many issues undeniably intersecting with Black anarchist theory and practice. As a result, I may have set my expectations too high. What I did not realize is that this book is a heavily academic text that perhaps could double as a graduate thesis. When I say academic, I don't just mean exploring theory, I mean it left me feeling at times like I wasn't smart or educated enough to grasp what Bey was saying. 109 pages of text took me quite a long time to crawl through as I found myself reading and rereading sections to make sure I grasped what was said. At other times, I felt that the book was having similar results of other academic texts I have read which is to say that it uses a lot of big words, huge quotes, and lots of gender studies language to say something that could be said in a simpler, more accessible manner. That is not to say that this book doesn't offer anything. Just know that, going into it, one should not expect a book designed to be accessible to most audiences- including perhaps marginalized Black people without access to college that Black-anarchism is supposed to liberate. It can however add something to the field of critical feminist, race, and anarchist studies. The review of literature it provides alone is reason for that.
Bey quickly discusses intentions for the text which are not to force labels onto Black activists and theorists even if their actions and theories fall in line with anarchism. The text leans more towards a gender and race studies lens in which Bey persuades the reader to understand why anarchism is linked to Queer and Black feminisms. Bey mentions that As Black As Resistance (also put out by AK Press,) was an inspiration for Anarcho-Blackness. As Black As Resistance is one of my favorite anarchist texts of all time and while it can also be heavier academic reading, I found it to be much more accessible and better constructed than Anarcho-Blackness. You will find a lot of Zoe Samudzi quotes throughout Bey's work and rightfully so. As I mentioned before, Bey offers a good review of much of relevant literature out there. I was a little perturbed to find a Gandhi quote opening the book due to Gandhi's history of anti-Black racism. From then on, though, the reader will find a lot of quotes from various anarchists, feminists, activists, and theorists throughout. I put a ton of page flags on the pages, much of the time to mark quotations from other texts.
Since the book is a collection of "notes toward a Black anarchism," the reader will find essays focusing on specific topics such as activist history, Black feminism, gender and Queerness, and so on. I found the final chapter in the book to be the most accessibly written. I always find myself on a seesaw of thoughts regarding academic texts like this. I absolutely believe there is an important place for critical studies and I do not believe that all texts need to be accessible to all readers. But, when a text focuses on the struggles of the most marginalized people in society, something feels a little off if said people can't access the text. I have a B.S. and have done my share of reading and writing papers and thus, I assume that if I struggle to grasp something, someone less educated and practiced than me may also struggle. That said, I have developed cognitive difficulties over time due to disability, so perhaps it's more accessible than I realize. There is, however, also something to be said about texts that require full attention, rereading, exploring citations, and so on, and how the reading process of those can be more involved in a good way. So, this text is an example of the latter. Perhaps those who would benefit most from this are academics or those who frequently read academic texts, particularly in gender and critical race studies, who need a better understanding of how anarchism fits into that. For those already more on board with this idea, I recommend going for As Black as Resistance by Samudzi and Anderson instead.
This was also posted to my goodreads.
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