Black Reconstruction as Decolonial Sociology

ABSTRACT This essay argues that Black Reconstruction provides a foundation for rethinking sociology along decolonial lines. While several sociologists have discussed the need to decolonize the discipline, persistent questions remain about what such an endeavor would entail and whether it could be realized within sociology's existing frameworks. Black Reconstruction , however, anticipated and exemplified the possibility of a decolonial sociology long before these debates emerged. The book achieves this by offering a decolonial understanding of modernity alongside an alternative methodological approach for the discipline. It redefines modernity as inherently racialized and reconceptualizes capitalism as a racial–colonial formation. Furthermore, its methodological vision integrates second sight, conjunctural analysis, and a rethinking of the relationships between sociology and history, as well as between the local and the global. Ultimately, Black Reconstruction shows that a decolonial sociology is not only possible but a far better way to practice the discipline.