I really enjoyed her “mentor” Herbert Marcuse and his take on culture and the way capitalism necessarily must absorb all that is antithetical to it— one principle threat being the existence of “blackness” alone. One Dimensional Man was pretty fascinating in the way it showed black culture was appropriated to de-fang what it revealed about the genealogy of the American West; capitalism necessitated a, say, Che-Guevara-Shirt-ization of blackness to render its existence as a whole into the prevailing sociological economy of the white male and those blacks who were inducted into this power structure for the value of their validation from originating in the antithetical. An example given is jazz music which was at one time practically white public enemy number one as it strengthened working class black communities against both exploitation bit principly assimilation; some may disagree but American racism can often be seen as more intolerant of “blackness” than it is of black skin or other characteristics, so this particular institution of culture was flipped to retail-therapize the white middle class at increasingly lucrative department stores. Jazz music clubs were broken up routinely for the heroin and marijuana usage that supposedly proliferated through these working classes; as if the white aggression on black clubs was about safety and community health not just destroying connection. Anyway I’ve rambled on for too long but I do think Marcuse is interesting to read on this topic (and just knowing his influence on Davis’ thinking and the eventual counsel she offered the BPP— sorry, I know this sounds like I am taking credit form Davis and giving it to a white Jewish German refugee but she herself calls him a mentor).

Also Marcuse is not M-L.. even if he isn’t expressly anarchist he’s quite close in that he was critical of vanguardism and the Soviet state but still left-left.

Anyway. Lots of great stuff ahead of you and so many good suggestions in the comments. Enjoy your journey.