By Thomas Filbin
A powerfully relevant study about an iconoclastic Black thinker and poet who was dedicated to economic reform as well as the eradication of racism.
Claude McKay: The Making of a Black Bolshevik by Winston James. Columbia University Press, 426 pp., $32 (paper).
Claude McKay might be the most famous Black writer that Americans have never heard of, and that is not your fault. The reason is that he was a devout Marxist at a time when that stance was neither popular or correctly understood. Given the trauma of the First World War and then the Depression and worldwide upheavals, Marxism was seen by many as the solution, a salve for humanitys wounds because it spoke directly to the plight of the common working man and woman. Not everyone agreed with this position; for many, Marxisms call for collectivism over individuality was castigated as the enemy of all that was good and holy in American life. This splendid new biography by Winston James, a professor of history at the University of California, Irvine, looks at McKays embrace of radicalism through a sympathetic lens. McKay did not become a Marxist through ideological indoctrination, but because it was how he made sense of an unjust world and the powers that kept it that way.
Festus Claudius McKay was born in Jamaica in 1889, the youngest of 11 children of Thomas and Hannah McKay, owners of a farm of a hundred acres, acquired by gift of marriage and hard labor. Workers were employed and the holdings functioned as a profitable business. James notes that these were reasonable criteria for qualifying as a capitalist farmer. Thomass father had been an enslaved African of the Asante nation, todays Ghana. The end of slavery allowed some Black peasants to become property owners. Upward mobility was not unique, but it was rare in turn-of-the-century Jamaica. Thomas was very dark-skinned, a characteristic that James identifies as a marker, at the time, of ones class as well as race. One could almost read a persons social class from the color of his or her skin, the historian explains.
The economic status of McKays family made it possible for Claude to acquire an education. Older brother Theo graduated from a teachers college and then became a headmaster. Theo was a freethinker, and he passed books on literature and politics to Claude, who described his years with his brother as a great formative period in my life a time of perfect freedom to play, read and think as I liked.
Jamaica became too small for Claude and he emigrated to America, first attending college in Kansas but eventually winding up in New York where, as a respected author, he became part of the Harlem Renaissance. He wrote poetry and novels throughout the 20s and 30s, but before that he had become increasingly radicalized as he learned of the horrific treatment of Blacks during Jim Crow. Lynching, beating, and burning of homes were common occurrences, and not only in the South. Violence was the means of preventing Blacks from attaining equality and full participation in social and economic life. McKay worked for the Pennsylvania Railroad for a time as a waiter; he started carrying a revolver for protection. His activist leanings became increasingly extreme: he moved from being a Fabian (or gradual socialist) to an outright Bolshevik after the 1917 Russian revolution. Promises of change for Blacks and workers were in the air. Marcus Garvey moved the headquarters of his Universal Negro Improvement Association to Harlem in 1913, while A. Philip Randolph, who organized the Black railroad porters into a union, left Florida for New York in 1911. The ferment of ideas, grounded in the goal of generating unified action, charged the air the reformers breathed. McKay was exhilarated by everything around him during his first years in New York.
Still, McKay was hungry for travel. He went to England, where he lived for a time, and visited Russia in 1922-23, where he was feted by the Bolsheviks, who saw racism and oppression as an essential part of the capitalism they opposed. His transformation from a submissive colonial to an anti-imperialist radical began slowly, but he became a fervent believer. He was harshly condemned at the time, but his belief that Marxs doctrines were not pipe dreams is becoming increasingly acceptable to a younger generation, which sees them as blueprints for a revolution that will upend an economic order that perpetuates inequality by exploiting the dispossessed. Thus the powerful relevance of a study dedicated to an iconoclastic Black thinker and poet who was dedicated to economic reform as well as the eradication of racism.
For many back home, this embrace of Soviet socialism marked McKay as suspect; he became branded as un-American, a hostile voice to be feared. The Red Scare of the 20s turned Americans who might otherwise be inclined to empathize with the workers of the world into suspicious patriots frightened by cartoon images of Communist revolutionaries coming to cut their throats as they slept. Americas visceral fear of socialism began then and continues to this day. Bernie Sanders is labeled a socialist by contemporary conservatives, who are anxious to stop any challenge to the neoliberal status quo. Of course, by global standards Bernie is no more than a center left European social democrat.
Socialism in most Western countries has morphed into an unstable hybrid of statism and capitalism, and the same can be said of the communist world. Russian oligarchs enabled by Putin are the new robber barons, the owners of gigantic yachts and castles. Years ago China opted for a middle way, although Xi has attempted lately to bring private actors under greater control by the state. The pragmatic as well as idealistic values of socialism have been perverted by the same forces that turned free enterprise into mega capitalism: the desire for unlimited power and the need to maintain it.
After time in France, McKay returned to America and wrote prolifically, editing a leftist newspaper. His poetry and nonfiction carried the banner of revolution, but the rise of Stalin and in 1929 the exile of Trotsky, whom McKay deeply admired, transformed him into a full-throated opponent of Russian authoritarianism. The decade leading up to McKays death in 1948 is barely covered here, but Jamess history is explicitly dedicated to the formative years of this Jamaican-American Black agitator and writer, his evolution into an apostle of Marxist socialism.
McKay was an artist whose written work covered a wide range of human feelings, not just the political. As an example of the latter, there is his 1919 poem If We Must Die, a forceful expression (drawing on resonances with WWI) of the angry desperation of Black resistance to white racism. Here are its opening lines:
If we must die let it not be like hogs
Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot,
While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs,
Making their mock at our accursd lot.
The poem ends with a call to fight back, to die, if necessary, on ones feet and not on ones knees.
Yet McKay could also be more personal and unabashedly sentimental. The second stanza of his 1922 poem Spring in New Hampshire is an idyll, a daydream about the beauty of nature and our place in it:
Too wonderful the April night,
Too faintly sweet the first May flowers,
The stars too gloriously bright,
For me to spend the evening hours,
When fields are fresh and streams are leaping,
Wearied, exhausted, dully sleeping.
One comes away from Claude McKay: The Making of a Black Bolshevik feeling that the Black writer lived a full and admirable life, politically and socially engaged, but never to the diminution of his individuality. Pure Bolshevism would have dogmatically dismissed the personal and emotional as bourgeois affectations, distractions that took energy away from the struggle against oppression. But McKay was too much of a creative spirit to be remade into something other than what he was. For him, humankind needs both the bread and the roses.
Thomas Filbin is a freelance critic whose reviews have appeared in the New York Times Book Review, Boston Sunday Globe, and Hudson Review. He lives outside of Boston.
Originally posted here:
- Days of our Lives' Suzanne Rogers on the Evolution of Maggie: "She Knows Who She Is Now, and She's Not Relying ... - Michael Fairman TV - March 14th, 2024 [March 14th, 2024]
- Kylie Jenner Talks About Her Style Evolution - The Cut - March 14th, 2024 [March 14th, 2024]
- Equator Coffees Unveils New Packaging Design, Reflecting Brand Evolution & Vision For The Future - Sprudge - March 14th, 2024 [March 14th, 2024]
- Rosewood Hotel Group Accelerates Growth And Evolution Across Its Four Distinctive Brands - Hospitality Net - March 14th, 2024 [March 14th, 2024]
- Thomson Reuters Unveils New Brand Evolution - Adweek - March 14th, 2024 [March 14th, 2024]
- Is It Becoming Acceptable to Speak of Design? - Discovery Institute - March 14th, 2024 [March 14th, 2024]
- Did Charles Darwin Convert to Christianity and Discredit Evolution on His Deathbed? - Snopes.com - March 14th, 2024 [March 14th, 2024]
- Milk, it's not just for mammals: An amphibian makes it too - NPR - March 14th, 2024 [March 14th, 2024]
- Discover Puerto Rico Debuts Evolution of Its Successful 'Live Boricua' Brand Campaign Aimed at Engaging Visitors ... - Yahoo Finance - March 14th, 2024 [March 14th, 2024]
- A Journey Through Time: The Evolution of Ras Al Khaimah Art - Business Wire - March 14th, 2024 [March 14th, 2024]
- Empowering Women: The Evolution and Innovation of coto Social Platform - CXOToday.com - March 14th, 2024 [March 14th, 2024]
- The Evolution of Da'Vine Joy Randolph - The Root - March 14th, 2024 [March 14th, 2024]
- Study on mating behaviors offers clues into the evolution of attraction - Phys.org - March 14th, 2024 [March 14th, 2024]
- Dragonball Evolutions live-action Goku says goodbye to Toriyama: Sorry we messed up - AS USA - March 14th, 2024 [March 14th, 2024]
- Investec, evolution of SMEs in the materials handling sector - Leasing Life - March 14th, 2024 [March 14th, 2024]
- Pride & Prejudice and the evolution of the female gaze on screen - Yahoo News UK - March 6th, 2024 [March 6th, 2024]
- Joe Wong's Musical Evolution - Shepherd Express - March 6th, 2024 [March 6th, 2024]
- A global survey of prokaryotic genomes reveals the eco-evolutionary pressures driving horizontal gene transfer - Nature.com - March 6th, 2024 [March 6th, 2024]
- Redefining Intelligence: Chimpanzees Break Through the Cultural Evolution Barrier - Medriva - March 6th, 2024 [March 6th, 2024]
- Mollusk Eyes Reveal How Future Evolution Depends on the Past - Quanta Magazine - March 6th, 2024 [March 6th, 2024]
- Levy Delves Into the Evolution of ADCs in NSCLC - OncLive - March 6th, 2024 [March 6th, 2024]
- The Snake Is The Spearhead of Reptile Evolution, But Why? - ScienceAlert - March 6th, 2024 [March 6th, 2024]
- 'A very special day: Birds linked to Darwins theory of evolution reintroduced to Galapagos Islands - Euronews - March 6th, 2024 [March 6th, 2024]
- Why the Powerhouses of Cells Evolve Differently in Plants - College of Natural Sciences - March 6th, 2024 [March 6th, 2024]
- Driving the DevOps Evolution: ArgoCD, Tekton and Seamless Migrations - DevOps.com - March 6th, 2024 [March 6th, 2024]
- Finding the Balance: The Evolution of Public Health Guidance Amidst Controversy - Medriva - March 6th, 2024 [March 6th, 2024]
- Insider Podcast: Paolini dishes on her Polish roots and hard-court evolution - WTA Tennis - March 6th, 2024 [March 6th, 2024]
- Interview: Sara Gruen and Rick Elice Talk About the Inspiration and Evolution of the New Musical Water for Elephants - TheaterMania.com - March 6th, 2024 [March 6th, 2024]
- The Evolution of the Laravel Welcome Page - Laravel News - March 6th, 2024 [March 6th, 2024]
- A Serpentine 'Explosion' 125 Million Years Ago Primed Snakes for Rapid, Diverse Evolution - Smithsonian Magazine - March 6th, 2024 [March 6th, 2024]
- The Evolution of Modern Technologies in Car Development - FinSMEs - March 6th, 2024 [March 6th, 2024]
- Milwaukee Transformed: From Bronzeville to Veterans Park, Aerial Timelapses Reveal City's Evolution - BNN Breaking - March 6th, 2024 [March 6th, 2024]
- The eyes are a gateway to evolution of daddy longlegs at least. - University of Wisconsin-Madison - March 6th, 2024 [March 6th, 2024]
- Adrian Newey: RB20 is the next step in Red Bull's design evolution - PlanetSport - March 6th, 2024 [March 6th, 2024]
- LiveScore releases its 'Evolution of Fan' report - Gambling Insider - March 6th, 2024 [March 6th, 2024]
- The loyalty program evolution makes its way to the full-service restaurant category - Nation's Restaurant News - March 6th, 2024 [March 6th, 2024]
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin II - Re-Evolution #1 spoiler-free review: goes hard on the action, but ... - Gamesradar - March 6th, 2024 [March 6th, 2024]
- Exploring U.S. Financial Evolution: DAR Hosts Talk on Federal Reserve History in Thomasville - BNN Breaking - March 6th, 2024 [March 6th, 2024]
- Why cloud evolution needs a cohesive approach to succeed - CIO - March 6th, 2024 [March 6th, 2024]
- Gilead Sciences CEO on Company's Evolution and Commitment to the Bay Area - BioSpace - March 6th, 2024 [March 6th, 2024]
- Navigating the AI Quandary: Human Supremacy vs Machine Intelligence Evolution - BNN Breaking - March 6th, 2024 [March 6th, 2024]
- Denis Villeneuve breaks down the evolution of sandworms in 'Dune: Part Two' - Mashable - March 6th, 2024 [March 6th, 2024]
- Continued evolution of law improves governing capacity - Chinadaily.com.cn - China Daily - March 6th, 2024 [March 6th, 2024]
- The Evolution of the DEX Space with dYdX's CEO Antonio Juliano - Blockster - March 6th, 2024 [March 6th, 2024]
- Quick Commerce Evolution: 3PL Firms Aim for Same Day Delivery, Chasing Blinkit and Zepto's Lead - BNN Breaking - March 6th, 2024 [March 6th, 2024]
- What If...? Star Jeffrey Wright Addreses the Watcher's Evolution and 'Epic' Season 2 Finale - CBR - Comic Book Resources - December 31st, 2023 [December 31st, 2023]
- Evolution of the Connected Autonomous Vehicle - Ward's Auto - December 31st, 2023 [December 31st, 2023]
- A project to capture the evolution of human culture. - Psychology Today - December 31st, 2023 [December 31st, 2023]
- The Evolution of a Digital Soul. Beyond Code: A Journey of Heart and | by Mark Randall Havens | Dec, 2023 - Medium - December 31st, 2023 [December 31st, 2023]
- 4 Clues That Reid Is Finally Returning In Criminal Minds: Evolution Season 2 - Screen Rant - December 31st, 2023 [December 31st, 2023]
- Evolution of Samoyed and Kitten's Friendship Delights Internet: 'Wholesome' - Newsweek - December 31st, 2023 [December 31st, 2023]
- Crypto Evolution: Pullix (PLX) vs OKB (OKB) & KuCoin (KCS) - Crypto Reporter - December 31st, 2023 [December 31st, 2023]
- Alfa Romeos mediocre F1 season heralded its era of evolution: Prime Tire - The Athletic - December 31st, 2023 [December 31st, 2023]
- Beyond The Uniform: 10 Years of Evolution in SYNC Performance's Custom Program - SkiRacing.com - December 31st, 2023 [December 31st, 2023]
- Why SZA's evolution into a popstar has earned her recognition as artist of the year - Salon - December 31st, 2023 [December 31st, 2023]
- AI in 2023 Rises, Falls and Evolution - Finance Magnates - December 31st, 2023 [December 31st, 2023]
- Indonesia's Indosat pursues evolution from telecom to tech company - Nikkei Asia - December 31st, 2023 [December 31st, 2023]
- EdTech Evolution: 3 Stocks Educating the Next Generation - InvestorPlace - December 31st, 2023 [December 31st, 2023]
- Informa Tech Interview with Huawei about voice evolution and innovations at 5G Core Summit 2023 - Informa Tech ... - Light Reading - December 31st, 2023 [December 31st, 2023]
- Looking ahead: What will the DeFi evolution look like in 2024? - Ledger Insights - Ledger Insights - December 31st, 2023 [December 31st, 2023]
- Why Cat Bohannon wrote 'Eve, How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution' | India News ... - IndiaTimes - December 31st, 2023 [December 31st, 2023]
- The smart-design evolution of the laboratory space - pharmaphorum - December 31st, 2023 [December 31st, 2023]
- The WILD Evolution of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles TMNT (VIDEO) - FandomWire - December 31st, 2023 [December 31st, 2023]
- The supernatural invades American museums via indigenous artifacts - Why Evolution Is True - December 31st, 2023 [December 31st, 2023]
- Baleen Whales First Evolved Large Body Size in Cold Southern Waters, New Fossil Shows - Sci.News - December 31st, 2023 [December 31st, 2023]
- The Evolution of Identity in Taiwan The Diplomat - The Diplomat - December 31st, 2023 [December 31st, 2023]
- From the Archive: The Evolution Of Hockey Pools - The Hockey News - December 31st, 2023 [December 31st, 2023]
- 'X-Men: Evolution' Is Better Than 'X-Men: The Animated Series' - Collider - December 31st, 2023 [December 31st, 2023]
- Unveiling the Silver Screen: The Evolution of Celebrity Nudity in Cinema - The Hype Magazine - December 31st, 2023 [December 31st, 2023]
- Are Humans Still Evolving? 'Maybe More Rapidly Than Ever,' Says Scientist - Newsweek - December 31st, 2023 [December 31st, 2023]
- The Intersection of Real Estate and Fintech: Evolution, Impact of Policies, and Global Dynamics - CXOToday.com - December 31st, 2023 [December 31st, 2023]
- Kyle Richards' Style Evolution: Her Best Looks - Us Weekly - December 31st, 2023 [December 31st, 2023]
- Criminal Minds: Evolution Season 2's "Deeper Secrets" Teased By Aisha Tyler - Screen Rant - December 31st, 2023 [December 31st, 2023]
- Saturday: Hili dialogue Why Evolution Is True - Why Evolution Is True - December 31st, 2023 [December 31st, 2023]
- NBA 2K24 MyTEAM New Year Resolution Adds 14 Evolution Cards - ClutchPoints - December 31st, 2023 [December 31st, 2023]
- dive into the history of NASA's logo evolution from the space ... - Designboom - November 8th, 2023 [November 8th, 2023]
- Resolving the puzzle of same-sex sexual interactions - Nature.com - November 8th, 2023 [November 8th, 2023]
- The History and Evolution of Black Friday And How It Got Its Name - Yahoo Life - November 8th, 2023 [November 8th, 2023]
- Evolution of Terran R, with Tim Ellis (Relativity Space) - Payload - November 8th, 2023 [November 8th, 2023]
- Brownell Raves About Breakout Junior's Evolution - The Clemson Insider - November 8th, 2023 [November 8th, 2023]