Guest
This slide presentation/talk on “Theodore W. Allen and ‘The Invention of the White Race’“ by Jeffrey B. Perry was presented on Sat., June 18, 2016, at a “Multiracial Organizing Conference“ on “Organizing Poor and Working Class Whites: The Challenge of Building a Multiracial Movement,“ at the Beloved Community Center, Greensboro, NC. The conference pulled together a “multiracial” group of organizers from the South, who are doing work among poor and working people, and who oppose class exploitation and oppression and emphasize the centrality of struggle against white supremacy to social change efforts. Organizer Ben Wilkins coordinated the two-day conference and other speakers included long-time activists Joyce Johnson, Rosalyn Pelles, Bob Zellner, and Al McSurely. Special thanks to Eric Preston (and Fusion Films) for his work on this video. Please share this video with others! The struggle against white supremacy is central to efforts at social change! For a 2012 video on this topic see “When the first Africans arrived in Virginia in 1619, there were no 'white' people there; nor, according to the colonial records, would there be for another sixty years.“ Theodore W. Allen (Written after searching through 885 county-years of Virginia's colonial records) Allen's “The Invention of the White Race,“ with its focus on racial oppression and social control, is one of the twentieth-century's major contributions to historical understanding. This two-volume classic (Vol. 1: “Racial Oppression and Social Control“ and Vol. 2: “The Origin of Racial Oppression in Anglo-America“) details how the “white race“ was invented as a ruling-class social control formation and a system of racial oppression was imposed in response to labor solidarity in the wake of Bacon's Rebellion (1676-77), how the “white race“ was created and maintained through “white race“ privileges conferred on laboring class European-Americans relative to African-Americans, how these privileges were not in the interest of African-Americans or laboring class European-Americans, and how the “white race“ has been the principal historic guarantor of ruling-class domination in America. (See ) “The Invention of the White Race“ presents a full-scale challenge to what Allen refers to as “The Great White Assumption“ -- “the unquestioning, indeed unthinking acceptance of the 'white' identity of European-Americans of all classes as a natural attribute rather than a social construct.“ Its thesis on the origin and nature of the “white race“ contains the root of a new and radical approach to United States history, one that challenges master narratives taught in the media and in schools, colleges, and universities. With its equalitarian motif and emphasis on class struggle it speaks to people today who strive for change worldwide. Jeffrey B. Perry contributed new introductions, back matter, internal study guides, and expanded indexes to Verso Books' new expanded edition of “The Invention of the White Race.“ See For information on Dr. Perry and his work on Hubert Harrison “the father of Harlem radicalism“ (1883-1927) and Theodore W. Allen (1919-2005) see 1) For comments by scholars and activists About “Hubert Harrison: The Voice of Harlem Radicalism, 1883-1918” 2) For information by and about Hubert Harrison 3) For information by and about Theodore W. Allen 4) For information on Hubert Harrison’s “When Africa Awakes: The ‘Inside Story’ of the Stirrings and Strivings of the New Negro in the Western World” see For the video “Hubert Harrison, Theodore W. Allen, and the Centrality of the Struggle Against White Supremacy” see For a video on Hubert Harrison the “Father Harlem Radicalism” and Founder of the “New Negro Movement” -- in 2016 see For a 2014 video on Hubert Harrison see For a 2016 video on “Hubert Harrison” see For videos of an interview with Theodore W. Allen by Stella Winston see and at For the article “The Developing Conjuncture and Some Insights from Hubert Harrison and Theodore W. Allen on the Centrality of the Fight Against White Supremacy” by Jeffrey B. Perry, which offers the fullest treatment of the development of Allen’s thought, see (Top Left) or see
