Black Power and/as Patriarchy

Abstract:In Moving Against the System: The 1968 Congress of Black Writers and the Making of Global Consciousness, David Austin continues his important work as the leading historian of 1960s black Montreal. Moving Against the System illuminates histories that are critical to an understanding of black radicalism in Canada, the Caribbean, and the African diaspora, more broadly. This work decenters the United States as the nexus of Black Power, allowing readers to think about Canada as an understudied site of black radical organizing. While the congress viewed Black Nationalism as a serious political framework for defeating both racism and colonialism, all the speakers were male. This essay critiques the masculinist politics of Black Power at the congress and analyzes how Austin navigates the absence of women's voices among the congress's speakers.