Screens Fade to Black: Contemporary African American Cinema Book

In many respects this pamphlet (with an interesting introduction by Phelps) is remarkable. Its precis of African American history anticipates some of the key insights of WEB Du Bois's Black Reconstruction. I also found one moment on p. 67 an anticipation of intersectionality. And frankly, even as flawed a Marxist as Schachtman does a better job of explaining the connection between overlapping identities/intersecting experiences of oppression and the socialist program than do the best intersectionalists.

That said, I have various issues with this pamphlet. As Phelps notes, Schachtman's attack on the Black petty bourgeois was falsified by the peculiar conditions of postwar boom and Cold War politics that made the civil rights victories of the 1960s possible. Far less forgivably, though, I think Schachtman demonstrates some real lacunae in his understanding of Black political culture and aspiration. In rejecting the ludicrous Black Belt thesis, he asserts an uncomplicated Americanness which just doesn't accord with the reality of a people whose political awakening has always been connected with African and diasporic identifications alongside aspirations toward full enjoyment of American citizenship. This fundamental tension remains unresolved by Schachtman, and I think his failure in this respect was picked up by Trotsky (albeit imprecisely given his self-confessed ignorance of particulars).

All in all a fascinating historical document which demonstrates that Trotskyists have always had real insights to offer on the anti-racist struggle. But far from a finished Marxist manifesto on the topic.