We are celebrating Black History Month at a time when forces of racism and fascism, led by a few Republican governors, are attempting to erase Black history from the history of the United States. Legislation banning the teaching of Critical Race Theory in schools, along with campaigns to remove books dealing with racism from school and community libraries, are being enacted. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is among those leading the violent efforts. Under the guise of giving parents the “right” to determine what their children will learn, teachers and librarians who refuse to enforce these policies are being threatened with job termination.

This Marxist IQ is dedicated to the defense of Black history as an essential part of U.S. history.

1. Marxists would agree with the following analysis of slavery, which may soon be banned in Florida:

“The slave-breeders and slave-traders are a small, odious, and detested class among you; and yet in politics, they dictate the course of all of you.” Its author was

a. Friedrich Engels.
b. Karl Marx.
c. Robert Owen.
d. Abraham Lincoln.

2 . Communists believe racism stems from

a. moral degeneracy.
b. a failure to understand “the other.”
c. the historical grafting of slavery onto U.S. capitalism and its continued need to extract super-profits and to disrupt working-class and people’s unity.
d. human nature.

3. Republican governors and state legislators have sought to demonize and outlaw the teaching of critical race theory in public schools. Communists understand that critical race theory

a. brings together the social sciences and humanities to understand the role of systemic racism in U.S. society and culture.
b. enables students to understand the historical connections between racism in the U.S., settler-colonialism, and imperialism globally.
c. was itself brought into prominence by the Black Lives Matter movement against ongoing police terror, mass incarceration, and its disproportionate impact on African Americans.
d. All of the above

4. Racist policies provide capitalists with “super-profits” by

a. paying Black, Latino and other workers of color less, which also depresses the general wage rate.
b. encouraging more people to become “entrepreneurs.”
c. segregating workers so that they can develop their “natural abilities.”
d. employing more efficient, productive, and “racially superior” workers.

5. Among the most globally distinguished African Americans of the 20th century, W.E.B. Du Bois, Paul Robeson, Claudia Jones, and Angela Davis

a. all fought for a peace based on economic and social justice.
b. all saw the liberation of African American people as part of a larger struggle for the liberation of all people.
c. all were formally listed at one time or another by FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover as Communists and subjected to official harassment and abuse for that reason.
d. All of the above

6. Faced with the book bans led by Governor DeSantis of Florida, the College Board removed material on the Black Lives Matter movement, police brutality, the Black Power movement of the 1960s, and prominent authors dealing with Black history and culture from its Advanced Placement curricula, which allows high-school students to earn college credits tuition-free. Which of the following authors is not on the list to be removed?

a. bell hooks
b. Angela Davis
c. Clarence Thomas
d. Robin D. Kelley

Answers here.

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