Adolph Reed (1947 - )

Tue Jan 14, 1947

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Adolph Reed Jr., born on this day in 1947, is a Marxist American professor of political science at the University of Pennsylvania, specializing in the study of issues of racism and U.S. politics. He is a contributing editor to The New Republic and has been a frequent contributor to The Progressive and The Nation and other leftwing publications.

Reed’s work on U.S. politics is noted for its critique of identity politics and anti-racism, particularly of their role in black politics. In his essay “The Limits of Anti-Racism”, Reed wrote:

“As a basis for a politics, antiracism seems to reflect [a depoliticization of] the critique of racial injustice by shifting its focus from the social structures that generate and reproduce racial inequality to an ultimately individual, and ahistorical, domain of ‘prejudice’ or ‘intolerance.’”