{{Use mdy dates|date=June 2023}} {{Short description|American political scientist}} {{Infobox academic | name = Adolph Reed | birth_name = Adolph Leonard Reed Jr. | birth_date = {{birth date and age|1947|1|14}} | birth_place = New York City, U.S. | death_date = | death_place = | education = [[University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill]] ([[Bachelor of Arts|BA]])<br>[[Atlanta University]] ([[Doctor of Philosophy|PhD]]) | thesis_title = W.E.B Dubois, Liberal Collectivism and the Effort to Consolidate a Black Elite | thesis_url = http://digitalcommons.auctr.edu/dissertations/2832/ | thesis_year = 1981 | doctoral_advisor = Alex Willingham<ref name=diss>{{cite thesis |last=Reed Jr. |first=Adolph Leonard |date=1981 |title=W.E.B Dubois liberal collectivism and the effort to consolidate a black elite: an Afro-American response to the development of mass-industrial society and its ideologies in the twentieth century united states |type=Ph.D. |oclc=957706700 |url=http://digitalcommons.auctr.edu/dissertations/2832/ }}</ref> | discipline = [[Political science]] | sub_discipline = [[American studies]] | workplaces = {{ubl|[[Yale University]]|[[Northwestern University]]|[[The New School]]|[[University of Pennsylvania]]}} }} '''Adolph Leonard Reed Jr.''' (born January 14, 1947) is an American [[Emeritus|professor emeritus]] of [[political science]] at the [[University of Pennsylvania]], specializing in studies of issues of racism and U.S. politics.
He has taught at [[Yale]], [[Northwestern University|Northwestern]], and the [[New School for Social Research]] and he has written on racial and [[economic inequality]]. He is a contributing editor to ''[[The New Republic]]'' and has been a frequent contributor to ''[[The Progressive]]'', ''[[The Nation]]'', and other left-wing publications. He is a founding member of the [[Labor Party (United States, 1996)|U.S. Labor Party]].
==Biography== Born in [[The Bronx]], New York, Reed was raised in [[New Orleans]], Louisiana. In the late 1960s, he organized protests involving poor black people and antiwar soldiers.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Powell |first=Michael |date=August 14, 2020 |title=A Black Marxist Scholar Wanted to Talk About Race. It Ignited a Fury. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/14/us/adolph-reed-controversy.html |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200814143045/https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/14/us/adolph-reed-controversy.html |archive-date=14 Aug 2020 |access-date=August 17, 2020 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>
He received his BA from the [[University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill]] in 1971 and his PhD from [[Atlanta University]] in 1981.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=Shaw |first=Gwyneth |date=May 24, 2019 |title=Adolph Reed is retiring. But he's still got more to say |url=https://penntoday.upenn.edu/news/adolph-reed-retiring-political-science |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190528154752/https://penntoday.upenn.edu/news/adolph-reed-retiring-political-science |archive-date=28 May 2019 |access-date=August 17, 2020 |website=Penn Today |language=en}}</ref> During his doctoral studies, he worked as an advisor to [[Maynard Jackson]], Atlanta's first black mayor.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=cv>{{cite web |url=https://www.sas.upenn.edu/polisci/sites/tengu.sas.upenn.edu.psci-test/files/Reed%20Vitae%202016%20July%20.pdf |title=Curriculum Vitae of: Adolph L. Reed, Jr. |last=Reed Jr. |first=Adolph L. |date=2016 |website=Political Science Department |publisher=University of Pennsylvania |access-date=February 13, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170320122021/http://www.sas.upenn.edu/polisci/sites/tengu.sas.upenn.edu.psci-test/files/Reed%20Vitae%202016%20July%20.pdf |archive-date=March 20, 2017 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
==Views== Reed's work on U.S. politics is notable for its critique of [[identity politics]] and [[anti-racism]], particularly of their role in black politics.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Warren |first=Kenneth |date=September 16, 2016 |title=On the End(s) of Black Politics |url=http://nonsite.org/editorial/on-the-ends-of-black-politics |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200919161420/https://nonsite.org/on-the-ends-of-black-politics/ |archive-date=19 Sep 2020 |access-date=November 26, 2016 |newspaper=nonsite.org |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.jacobinmag.com/2016/10/adolph-reed-blm-racism-capitalism-labor/|title=The Trouble With Anti-Antiracism {{!}} Jacobin|website=www.jacobinmag.com|access-date=November 26, 2016|quote=These days, however, Reed's focus has, in large part, shifted to what he calls "left identitarians" – an array of figures whom, he argues, seem motivated by a desire not to eliminate inequality, but merely to redistribute it in order to ensure diversity among the ranks of the elite.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=http://nonsite.org/editorial/splendors-and-miseries-of-the-antiracist-left-2|title=Splendors and Miseries of the Antiracist "Left"|date=November 6, 2016|newspaper=nonsite.org|language=en-US|access-date=April 7, 2018}}</ref> Reed has been a vocal critic of the policies and ideology of black [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]] politicians. For instance, he often criticized the politics of [[Barack Obama]], both before and during his presidency.<ref>Reed, Adolph Jr. [http://harpers.org/archive/2014/03/nothing-left-2/ " The long, slow surrender of American liberals"], ''[[Harper's Magazine]]'', March 2014.</ref>
In an article in ''[[The Village Voice]]'' published on January 16, 1996, Reed said of Obama:<ref>Reed, Adolph Jr. "The Curse of Community", ''Village Voice'', January 16, 1996.</ref> {{blockquote|In Chicago, for instance, we've gotten a foretaste of the new breed of foundation-hatched black communitarian voices; one of them, a smooth Harvard lawyer with impeccable do-good credentials and vacuous-to-repressive neoliberal politics, has won a state senate seat on a base mainly in the liberal foundation and development worlds. His fundamentally [[Entrepreneurship#Bootstrapping|bootstrap]] line was softened by a patina of the rhetoric of authentic community, talk about meeting in kitchens, small-scale solutions to social problems, and the predictable elevation of process over program — the point where identity politics converges with old-fashioned middle-class reform in favoring form over substance. I suspect that his ilk is the wave of the future in U.S. black politics, as in [[Haiti]] and wherever else the [[International Monetary Fund]] has sway. So far the black activist response hasn't been up to the challenge. We have to do better.<ref name=":0">Reed, Adolph Jr., ''Class Notes: Posing as Politics and Other Thoughts on the American Scene'' (New Press, 2000, {{ISBN|978-1-56584-675-3}}).</ref>}}
After [[Governor of South Carolina|South Carolina Governor]] [[Nikki Haley]] announced that African American Republican [[Tim Scott]] would be named to the soon-to-be-open [[List of United States senators from South Carolina|U.S. Senate seat in South Carolina]], held by [[Jim DeMint]]<ref>{{Cite web |last=Zeleny |first=Jennifer Steinhauer and Jeff |date=2012-12-17 |title=Tim Scott to Be Named for South Carolina Senate Seat, Republicans Say |url=https://archive.nytimes.com/thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/17/tim-scott-to-be-named-for-empty-south-carolina-senate-seat-republicans-say/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221108224421/https://archive.nytimes.com/thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/17/tim-scott-to-be-named-for-empty-south-carolina-senate-seat-republicans-say/ |archive-date=8 Nov 2022 |access-date=2026-01-04 |website=The Caucus |language=en}}</ref> on December 17, 2012, Reed, in an [[op-ed]] published in the December 18, 2012 edition of ''[[The New York Times]]'', stated: "It obscures the fact that modern black Republicans have been more [[Tokenism|tokens]] than signs of progress."<ref>{{Cite web |last=Reed Jr |first=Adolph |date=18 December 2012 |title=The Puzzle of Black Republicans |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/19/opinion/the-puzzle-of-black-republicans.html |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230601062315/https://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/19/opinion/the-puzzle-of-black-republicans.html |archive-date=1 Jun 2023 |website=The New York Times}}</ref>
Reed supported [[Bernie Sanders]] in the 2016 and 2020 presidential campaigns.<ref name=":1" />
In May 2020, Reed was scheduled to speak at the [[Democratic Socialists of America|DSA]] New York City chapter but the event was cancelled as a result of member opposition due to Reed's criticism of the [[American Left|political left's]] focus on the impact of the coronavirus on black people. The cancellation of Reed's event [[List of DSA controversies|received criticism]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Powell |first=Michael |date=2023-11-15 |title=Why Older Socialists Are Quitting the DSA |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/11/dsa-american-socialists-israel-palestine-divide/675989/ |access-date=2026-05-21 |website=The Atlantic |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Powell |first=Michael |date=2020-08-14 |title=A Black Marxist Scholar Wanted to Talk About Race. It Ignited a Fury. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/14/us/adolph-reed-controversy.html |access-date=2026-05-21 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>
==Publications==
=== Selected articles === * "[https://newrepublic.com/article/154996/myth-class-reductionism The Myth of Class Reductionism]". ''The New Republic'' (September 25, 2019) * "Antiracism: a neoliberal alternative to a left". ''Dialectical Anthropology'' 42.2 (June 2018) * "The Kerner Commission and the Irony of Antiracist Politics". ''Labor: Studies in Working-Class History of the Americas'' 14.4 (December 2017) * "The Post-1965 Trajectory of Race, Class, and Urban Politics in the United States Reconsidered". ''Labor Studies Journal'' 41.3 (2016) * "The Black-Labor-Left Alliance in the Neoliberal Age". ''New Labor Forum'' 25.2 (2016) * "No Easy Solutions". ''Jacobin'' (2016) * "Doubling Down in Atlantic City". ''Jacobin'' (2016) * "Bernie Sanders and the New Class Politics". ''Jacobin'' (2016) * "From Jenner to Dolezal: One Trans Good, the Other Not So Much". ''Common Dreams'' (Monday, June 15, 2015) * "The James Brown Theory of Black Liberation." ''Jacobin.'' (2015) * "The Strange Career of the Voting Rights Act: Selma in Fact and Fiction". ''New Labor Forum'' 24.2 (2015) * "The Crisis of Labour and the Left in the United States'". (w/Mark Dudzic). ''Socialist Register''. 51 (2014). * "Michelle Goldberg Goes to Washington". ''Jacobin'' (2014) * "Nothing Left: The Long, Slow Surrender of American Liberals". ''Harpers'' (March 2014) * "Adolph Reed, Jr. Responds". ''New Labor Forum'' 23.1 (2013) * "Marx, Race, and Neoliberalism". ''New Labor Forum'' 22.1 (2013) * "Race, Class, Crisis: The Discourse of Racial Disparity and its Analytical Discontents". (w/[[Merlin Chowkwanyun]])''Socialist Register'' 48 (2012) * "Why Labor's Soldiering for the Democrats is a Losing Battle". ''New Labor Forum'' 19.3, (Fall 2010) * "The 2004 Election in Perspective: The Myth of 'Cultural Divide' and the Triumph of Neoliberal Ideology". ''American Quarterly'' 57.1 (2005) * "Reinventing the Working Class: A Study in Elite Image Manipulation". ''New Labor Forum'' 13.3 (Fall 2004) * "Race and the Disruption of the New Deal Coalition". ''Urban Affairs Quarterly'' 27.2 (1991) * "W.E.B. Dubois: A Perspective on the Bases of his Political Thought". ''Political Theory'' 13.3 (1985) * "Pan-Africanism: Ideology for Liberation?". ''The Black Scholar'' 3 (September 1971)
===Books and chapters=== * ''Black Studies, Cultural Politics, and the Evasion of Inequality: The Farce this Time'' (w/Kenneth W. Warren). Routledge (2025), ISBN 9781003569947 * ''No Politics but Class Politics'' (w/Walter Benn Michaels)''.'' Eris (2023), {{ISBN|978-1-912475-57-5}} * ''The South: Jim Crow and Its Afterlives''. Verso Books (2022), {{ISBN|978-1839766268}} * "Foreword" in ''Crashing the Party: From the Bernie Sanders Campaign to a Progressive Movement''. (author) Heather Gautney. Verso Books (2018), {{ISBN|978-1786634320}} * ''Renewing Black Intellectual History: The Ideological and Material Foundations of African American Thought'' (editor w/ Kenneth W. Warren). Routledge (2010), {{ISBN| 978-1594516658}} * "The study of black politics and the practice of black politics: their historical relation and evolution" in ''Problems and Methods in the Study of Politics'' edited by Ian Shapiro, Rogers M. Smith, and [[Tarek E. Masoud]]. Cambridge University Press (2009), {{ISBN|978-0521539432}} * "Class Inequality, Liberal Bad Faith, and Neoliberalism: The True Disaster of Katrina" in ''Capitalizing on Catastrophe: Neoliberal Strategies in Disaster Reconstruction'' Edited by Nandini Gunewardena and Mark Schuller. AltaMira Press (2008), {{ISBN|978-0759111035}} * "Introduction," "Class-ifying the Hurricane" in ''Unnatural Disaster: The Nation on Hurricane Katrina''. Editor Betsy Reed. Nation Books. (2006), {{ISBN|978-1560259374}} * "Why Is There No Black Political Movement?" in ''Cultural Resistance Reader'' by Stephen Duncombe. Verso (2002), {{ISBN|978-1859843796}} * ''Without Justice for All: The New Liberalism and Our Retreat from Racial Equality''. Routledge (2001), {{ISBN|978-0-8133-2051-9}} * ''Class Notes: Posing as Politics and Other Thoughts on the American Scene''. The New Press (2000), {{ISBN|978-1-56584-675-3}} * ''Stirrings in the Jug: Black Politics in the Post-Segregation Era''. University of Minnesota Press (1999), {{ISBN|978-0-8166-2681-6}} * ''W.E.B. Du Bois and American Political Thought: Fabianism and the Color Line'' (1997), {{ISBN|978-0-19-513098-0}} * "Demobilization in the New Black Political Regime: Ideological Capitulation and Radical Failure in the Postsegregation Era" in ''The Bubbling Cauldron: Race, Ethnicity, and the Urban Crisis'' edited by Michael Smith and Joe Feagin. University of Minnesota Press (1995), {{ISBN|978-0816623327}} * "The Allure of Malcolm X and the Changing Character of Black Politics" in ''Malcolm X: In Our Own Image'' edited by Joe Wood. St. Martin's Press (1992), {{ISBN|0-312-06609-0}} Reprinted in ''Stirrings in the Jug: Black Politics in the Post-Segregation Era''. * ''The Jesse Jackson Phenomenon: The Crisis of Purpose in Afro-American Politics'' (1986), {{ISBN|978-0-300-03543-8}} * "Pan-Africanism as Black Liberalism: Du Bois and Garvey" in ''Pan-Africanism: New Directions in Strategy'' edited by Ofuatey-Kodjoe. University Press of America (1986) * ''Race, Politics, and Culture: Critical Essays on the Radicalism of the 1960s'' (editor) (1986), {{ISBN|978-0-313-24480-3}} * "Black Particularity Reconsidered". [http://www.telospress.com ''Telos''] 39 (Spring 1979). New York: Telos Press. Reprinted in ''Is It Nation Time?: Contemporary Essays on Black Power and Black Nationalism'' Editor Eddie S. Glaude Jr. University of Chicago Press. (2002), {{ISBN|978-0226298221}}
==References== {{Reflist|30em}}
==External links== * [http://www.thenation.com/authors/adolph-reed-jr Articles by Reed] in ''[[The Nation]]'' * [http://www.progressive.org/mag_reed0508 Article by Reed] in ''[[The Progressive]]'' * [http://www.sas.upenn.edu/polisci/people/standing-faculty/adolph-reed Reed at University of Pennsylvania's Political Science Department] * [http://www.socialistproject.ca/leftstreamed/ls69.php Race, Class and Crisis] video presentation by Reed, recorded September 24, 2010 * [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tbljQIRHk8 Obama, Antiracism, and Rebuilding the American Left] video presentation by Reed, recorded March 9, 2015 * [http://nonsite.org/editorial/three-tremes Three Tremés], on David Simon's ''[[Treme (TV series)|Treme]]'' * [http://billmoyers.com/segment/the-surrender-of-americas-liberals/ Reed is interviewed] by [[Bill Moyers]] on February 25, 2014. His article "The Surrender of American Liberals", published in the March 2014 edition of ''[[Harper's Magazine]]'', is discussed, among other topics
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Reed, Adolph L. Jr.}} [[Category:1947 births]] [[Category:20th-century African-American academics]] [[Category:20th-century American academics]] [[Category:21st-century African-American academics]] [[Category:21st-century American academics]] [[Category:African-American Catholics]] [[Category:African-American Marxists]] [[Category:African-American non-fiction writers]] [[Category:American Marxists]] [[Category:American male non-fiction writers]] [[Category:American non-fiction writers]] [[Category:American political party founders]] [[Category:American political scientists]] [[Category:American critics of postmodernism]] [[Category:Living people]] [[Category:Northwestern University faculty]] [[Category:Tulane University alumni]] [[Category:University of North Carolina alumni]] [[Category:University of Pennsylvania faculty]] [[Category:Writers from New Orleans]] [[Category:Yale University faculty]] [[Category:Academics from Louisiana]]