Everyone knows what theory to read by this point.
But what about stuff on Colonialism, Feminism, Systemic Racism and so on.
Any recommendations are welcome, but more specifically I would be interested in and appreciate how colonialism worked and what makes it unique as I see lots of people just equate it to war and conquest at large which I feel is wrong but would need a better understanding as to why.
The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon should provide you some insight into colonialism.
the new jim crow: mass incarceration in the age of colorblindness
In b4 ‘read Settlers’
- The Invention of the White Race by Theodore Allen (Volume 1 and 2) is everything Settlers wishes it could be. Amazing account of colonialism in a specific US context, and how it worked to create a white race in order to have a bulwark against slave revolts.
- The Overthrow of Colonial Slavery 1776-1848 by Robin Blackburn and the prequel whose name escapes me right now is a fantastic leftist account of slavery in the New World. Also explains how systemic racism formed as justification for an exploitative economic system of slavery.
Those are the two best accounts I’ve found of the colonial/slavery link, and how colonies were explicitly about profit (despite that not being the case at first).
Paulo Freire for a Latin American decolonial/Marxist Pedagogy.
Decolonizing Dialectics by Cicarello-Maher goes over Fanon, Dussel, and even Georges Sorel, who had contraversially influenced Italian Fascists but was extremely influential also for like Gramsci and Mariategui. I think the book presents a really interestingly combative and open ended dialectic, the podcast I heard about it from said that some MLs they knew didn’t like it, but idk it seemed pretty compatible to me and useful in a anti-imperialist framework. If you’re some strain of Libertarian Socialist I think you’ll certainly like it. It also ties all the theory into modern Venezuela. I thought it was good and I’m starting to work my way through all the above mentioned people, who are all related to decolonial struggles and postcolonial/racial analyses (except Sorel directly, but still indirectly). Also I haven’t read or looked too much into Walter Rodney, but he seems dope and is also on my list. Also CLR James