Attending a General Conference/Workshop (2-3 pts)

 

On September 25, 2025, I had the pleasure of attending the Thursday afternoon plenary of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History's (ASALH) 2025 Annual Conference. The title of the plenary was "Towards A Theory of Liberation: The State of Black Radicalism Today," with the panelists being Joy James (who wasn't present), Charisse Burden-Stelly, Ashley Howard, Akinyele Umoja, and Gerald Horne. ASALH was founded by Carter G. Woodson, who also founded Black History Month, for the purposes of being "the premier Black heritage learned society." Their conference theme this year was African-Americans and Labor, to focus on the ways that Blackness and labor intersect in the plethora of ways that we can observe in our society. 

The panel touched on a variety of perspectives surrounding the concept of Black radicalism, beginning with how the panelists. The answer that most stuck out to me was Burden-Stelly's invocation of Ella Baker's definition of getting to the root of the problem. Black radicalism is a political and intellectual intervention that seeks to get to the root of what subjugates Black people, which is most prominently white supremacy, cisheteropatriarchy, capitalism, imperialism, colonialism, and other systems of domination and violence. Umjoja also noted that Black politics are not always radical or liberatory, which sets Black radicalism apart from other frameworks. 

They also touched on the history and lineage of Black radicalism, with Gerald Horne tracing it back to the slave revolts that occurred in the 16th century in South Carolina and the Haitian Revolution. I appreciated the transnational analysis that shaped their definitions of Black radicalism. Often times the Black experience can only be articulated through the American context and siloes the United States from the rest of the world. 

What was most impactful, was the conversation around the state of Black radicalism today and the honest critiques of the ways that we have allowed ourselves to be co-opted by neoliberal apparatuses. I have been reflecting on this for some time, especially during this current political moment, where the fascism that has long been present in the United States is becoming more obvious to everyone due to the current political administration. The panel gave me a moment to reflect on my own personal politics and the ways that I have allowed myself to be complacent and to compromise my own values. 

As a Comparative Women's Studies major, I have been trained to operate within a Black feminist analytical framework and to apply it to different environments that I enter. The one thing that left me disappointed about the conversation was the lack of discussion around the ways that gender and cisheteropatriarchy intersects with anti-Blackness and other systems of domination. During the question-and-answer portion, I decided to inquire about the absence of gender. My questions went as followed: "How can we avoid replicating the mistakes of historical Black liberation movements that elided and reproduced cisheteropatriarchal oppression? How can we make sure the current rendition of Black radicalism doesn't just pay lip service to issues of gender + sexuality, but applies a gendered and queered analysis to visions of Black liberation?" 

Unfortunately, the answers I received were not ideal, but they gave me a better understanding of where the field and movements are currently. It also encouraged me to know that the work I am currently doing and hope to expand on as a Black feminist scholar-activist is necessary and has a place in both the academy and movement spaces. 

- Gabrielle Cassell