Charging genocide against US imperialism: beyond race versus class in the superexploitation of African Americans

Drawing on We Charge Genocide, a petition submitted to the United Nations (UN) in 1951, this article examines how the analysis of US imperialism as the basis of the genocide of African Americans provides an alternative to the “race versus class” debate. It begins with an examination of the anti-imperialist thought of Harry Haywood, a signatory of the petition whose theorizing of Black people’s national oppression under US imperialism was foundational to understanding the United States’ crime of genocide. Next, two human rights petitions detailing the race and class oppression of African Americans, submitted to the UN in 1946 and 1947, are discussed as precursors to We Charge Genocide. The final section details how an examination of US imperialism as the foundation of anti-Black genocide conveys the imbrication of race and class domination.