Here is the path to better understand the Marxist nature of these ideologies. Neo-Marxist Herbert Marcuse and Antonio Gramsci laid the foundation of what is known as cultural Marxism. Mike Gonzalez has written a book, The Plot to Change America: How Identity Politics is Dividing the Land of the Free. He is also a policy expert at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank in Washington, D.C. He explains that Marcuse taught critical race theorist Angela Davis at Brandeis University.[1] Significant as well, Angela Davis was the Communist Party’s candidate for Vice President in 1980 and 1984.[2]
Gonzales further explains that Angela Davis had a profound impact and was the inspiration behind the theory of Patrisse Cullors, who co-founded Black Lives Matter.[3]Gonzalez also says Alicia Garza, another Black Lives Matter co-founder, also admits on a video by Democracy Now! that she owed everything to Angela Davis.[4]
Additionally, many of us have watched the video where Patrisse Cullors and Alicia Garza claimed to be trained Marxists, although it has now been taken down. On another occasion, Davis explained her journey with Marcuse and the Frankfurt School; Marcuse and Davis also spoke together in her defense at Berkely. Thus, we have the link from the Neo-Marxist Herbert Marcuse who trained Angela Davis, who in turn trained the co-founders of Black Lives Matter, Patrisse Cullors and Alicia Garza, and their well-known claim to being trained Marxists. Thus, it is easy to see that Black Lives Matter is neo-Marxist to its core.
What lies at the base of the Critical Social Justice movement (CSJ), Critical Legal Theory (CLT), Critical Race Theory (CRT), Intersectionality (INT), and other critical emphases is what is known as Critical Theory (CT). CT was developed by neo-Marxists Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno. Horkheimer was also the former president of The Institute of Social Research, which is best known as the Frankfurt School. The Frankfurt School was established by neo-Marxists as a place to determine why the Marxist revolution failed to spread to other western countries; having determined why, they developed a plan to avoid a future repeat in their plan to spread Marxism. Unlike traditional social theories, which seek to explain society, CT seeks to change society by liberating the oppressed.
CT assumes capitalism, America, is made up of oppressors and oppressed-the majority and minority-and it seeks to deliver the oppressed by deconstructing the present capitalistic system and replacing it with socialism, which will ultimately lead to communism and the communist utopia. The process of deconstructing the US is to overemphasize and exaggerate the flaws in America and de-emphasize or even totally neglect the good. They constantly compare America, capitalism, with a utopic vision that does not exist. This is done to present America as irredeemably oppressive. That is to say, racism is in its very DNA, and people should hate America.
This contrast of America with their Marxian utopic vision is in spite of the fact that Marxism has never produced such a utopia nor can they even lay it out beyond the state of a dream so that people can examine it; for example, Marxism’s utopic vision of a Marxist society promises a society in which people have more leisure time than work time. All worries are taken care of, no fear, war, disparities, racism, or poverty exists.
Yet, they admit there’s no historical example of such a utopia,[5] and Marcuse says, we are at present . . . utterly incapable to draft anything, like a blueprint of such a society. Consequently, real America is contrasted with a society that only exists in the state of a dream. Even worse, in every instance that Marxian socialism has been tried, it results in millions being deprived and impoverished and millions and even tens of millions of innocent human beings being exterminated with unparalleled brutality.
This vision is in absolute contradiction to civil rights leaders like Fredrick Douglas, Booker T. Washington, and Martin Luther King, who actually loved America but thought (and rightly so) America had a blind spot. They did not seek to destroy America, but rather they called on America to live up to her full potential as spelled out in the Declaration of Independence.
Thus, critical theories like CRT and INT are not designed to unify, make America better, but ultimately destroy it and replace it with socialism/communism. The Marxian perspective is that capitalism and private property are inherently evil and oppressive, and from which flow the evils of the world: racism, war, poverty, and all forms of oppression. Only a Marxian, socialism/communism/utopia is liberating. A serious study of the founding writings, founders, and leading thinkers of CLT, CRT, and CSJ reveal that they are permeated by Marxian ideology. This permeation is evident in their explicit claims and that their ideas emanate from neo-Marxist writings.
Therefore, it is impossible to separate CLT, CRT, CSJ, INT, or BLM from Marxism because, without Marxist ideology, they would not exist.
[1] https://www.newsmax.com/books/books-mike-gonzalez-identity-politics/2021/01/26/id/1007205/para 12, accessed 3/12/21.
[2] https://www.newsmax.com/books/books-mike-gonzalez-identity-politics/2021/01/26/id/1007205/para 13, accessed 3/12/21.
[3] https://www.newsmax.com/books/books-mike-gonzalez-identity-politics/2021/01/26/id/1007205/para 14, accessed 3/12/21.
[4] https://www.newsmax.com/books/books-mike-gonzalez-identity-politics/2021/01/26/id/1007205/para 15, accessed 3/12/21.
[5] Max Horkheimer, Critical Theory: Selected Essays, 241.
