![]() James' central argument, in other words, is that the predicament of colonial oppression is not so much a situation of racial oppression but of class antagonism or opposition-even among classes within the colonized body politic. ![]() But to neglect the racial factor as merely incidental is an error only less grave than to make it fundamental. ![]() The race question is subsidiary to the class question in politics, and to think of imperialism in terms of race is disastrous. In the following passage, James adopts the materialist (Marxist) position that questions of class precede and overshadow questions of race, gender, or nation: ![]() Although James is careful to point out the racial heterogeneity of the San Domingo population-distinguishing, for example, between mulattoes, small whites, big whites, and maritime bourgeoisie-he places greater emphasis on the antagonisms of class that provided the socio-economic impetus for revolution: The Black Jacobins, an historical account of the San Domingo Revolution of 1791-1803 and its interrelation with the French Revolution in 1789, is above all a narrative of liberation that documents the revolutionary potential of proletarian masses. The Black Jacobins: a Class Analysis of Revolution The Black Jacobins: a Class Analysis of Revolution Benjamin Graves '98, Brown University ![]()
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