Susan Neiman
Paul Robeson and the Question of Stalinism
During the McCarthy Era, Robeson’s deep ties to socialism, and the Soviet Union, led to the loss of his health, his wealth and his passport. Today’s anti-communists are more subtle but all the more insidious: many praise Robeson’s activism on behalf of African-Americans, but leave out mention of his socialist engagement. When unable to ignore them, authors seek to excuse them by pointing out that the Communist Party was better on civil rights questions than others. This is true, given its commitment to international solidarity. But Robeson’s commitment to that solidarity was never tribalist. While there is no evidence that he joined the Communist Party, his appreciation of many of its principles and his love of the Soviet Union never wavered, even during Stalinism’s darkest days. I will examine the reasons for the position which puzzle and disturb some of his admirers.
Susan Neiman lives in Berlin and is Director of the Einstein Forum. Born in Atlanta, Georgia, Neiman studied philosophy at Harvard, completing her Ph.D. under John Rawls and Stanley Cavell. She also studied at the Freie Universität Berlin, and was professor of philosophy at Yale and at Tel Aviv University. Her books, translated into many languages, include Slow Fire: Jewish Notes from Berlin (1991); The Unity of Reason: Rereading Kant (1994); Evil in Modern Thought: An Alternative History of Philosophy (2002); Fremde sehen anders (2005); Moral Clarity: A Guide for Grown-up Idealists (2008); Why Grow Up? (2014); Widerstand der Vernunft. Ein Manifest in postfaktischen Zeiten (2017); Learning from the Germans: Race and the Memory of Evil (2019); and Left is not Woke (2023). She has also published over one hundred essays in many newspapers, magazines and journals. She is a member of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and the American Philosophical Society.