On Race Traitors, Identity Politics, and Revolutionary Horizons Since the Uprising w/ Idris Robinson

Idris Robinson revisits and expands upon his seminal essay "How It Might Should Be Done." In the aftermath of the CHAZ occupation in downtown Seattle, “How It Might Should" was a public talk surveying the horizon of revolutionary potential uncovered by the George Floyd Rebellion during the hot summer of 2020. The essay of the same title, published in Ill Will that August, is seen in radical circles as one of the definitive texts of the uprising. In ten putative theses, ranging from identity politics, the current pandemic, to the legacy of black revolt, the essay sought to facilitate a more direct and focused discussion regarding the stakes of emancipatory transformation at the very heart of empire. Since the uprising, the crisis has only deepened, presenting new possibilities and dashing others. In this new lecture held at the University of Michigan, Idris both reassesses and expands upon previous themes, such as a theorization of civil war as stasis, an examination of the abolition