Cedric Robinson


Cedric Robinson was a professor in the Department of Black Studies and the Department of Political Science at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He headed the Department of Black Studies and the Department of Political Science and served as the Director of the Center for Black Studies Research. Robinson's areas of interest included classical and modern political philosophy, radical social theory in the African diaspora, comparative politics, racial capitalism, and the relationships between and among media and politics.

Early life

Robinson was born in Oakland, California, on November 5, 1940. He attended the University of California, Berkeley, where he earned a B.A. in social anthropology in 1963, and Stanford University, where he received an M.A. and Ph.D. in political theory in 1974.
He became a political activist during his student days, when he protested against the university administration and American foreign and domestic policies along with other Black radical students.
Robinson's grandfather influenced his radical political views. As a political radical in 1920s Alabama, his grandfather was ultimately forced to leave to save his life and decided to go to California. Robinson named Winston Whiteside, C. L. R. James, and Terrence Hopkins as other thinkers who shaped his political outlook.

Career and public service

After leaving Berkeley, Robinson was drafted into the U.S. Army and also worked at the Alameda County Probation Department. From 1971 to 1973, Cedric was a lecturer in Political Science and Black Studies at the University of Michigan. In 1973, Cedric accepted his first tenure, a track job at Binghamton University–State University of New York. In 1978, Robinson joined the faculty at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and became director of the Center for Black Studies Research.
In 1980, trying to correct what they saw as overall media bias as well as media laziness in accepting what the White House, the US State Department, and The Pentagon said about the Third World and American relations with it, Robinson and UCSB student Corey Dubin started Third World News Review on the campus and community radio station, KCSB. Five years later the program became available on public access television. Since 1980, UCSB students from the Third World and other UCSB faculty members have contributed to the program, produced it, or both.
The author of five books, Robinson also had articles appear in academic journals and anthologies on subjects ranging from political thought in the United States, Africa, and the Caribbean to Western social theory, film, and the press.

Selected bibliography

Books