In his pathbreaking monograph Black Marxism: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition, Cedric Robinson explores how the development of capitalism is entwined with the subordination and enslavement of racial populations. Following a sustained engagement with Robinson’s text, this course goes onto explore a series of twentieth- and twenty-first century African and Black diasporic authors who have played an important role in interrogating and resisting racial capitalism and its enduring consequences. Questions we will consider include: how can freedom be achieved? What does emancipation look like? Is the freedom of one group necessarily defined in opposition to unfreedom of others? What is the relationship between art and the project of liberation? Can the materials of the modern world be made compatible with human flourishing? Is struggle personal or collective, national or global? How is the contestation of racial and economic injustice entangled with other social variables, such as gender, sexuality, and geography?