The Identity Paradox The Identity Paradox: Inside the Racial Pharmakon

Please join Professor Carlos Gallego and special guest Rome from Revolutionary Blackout Network (RBN), as we discuss Rome’s “Tour for the Poor” and his efforts to offer mutual aid to people in need across the nation, travelling to different cities to provide anything from food and water to tents and clothing. We also discuss Huey P. Newton’s concept of “revolutionary suicide” and how the concept of “risk” comes into play in such a politics. We conclude by talking about a current mini-series being produced around Rome’s “Tour for the Poor,” as well as his recent efforts to create a working-class political party focused on local and state politics. (Recorded on May 16th, 2022)

Please join me (Carlos Gallego) and my special guest, Dr. Ibtesam Al Atiyat (Associate Professor of Sociology and Anthropology), as we discuss how colonial and imperialist legacies influence our understanding of the “welcomed refugee,” as well as what constitutes a geopolitical and/or humanitarian crisis at this moment in history. We also analyze what global emergencies receive mainstream US media coverage and government assistance, and what nations and crises get ignored or censored. So, please join us for a timely discussion concerning displacement, forced migration, and the geopolitics surrounding the welcomed versus unwelcomed refugee/asylum seeker.

Join us in this latest episode as we discuss why identity politics falls short in addressing the various contradictions that emerge within parliamentary capitalism, a topic that seems timely in light of the various culture wars currently dominating much of the nation’s public discourse. The episode provides a brief overview of the intricate synchronicity that exists between the development of capitalism and the emergence of identity politics as we understand it today. We outline the connections between three major stages: settler-colonialism, imperialism, and neoliberalism. So, if you’re interested in why the commodification of racial identity continues to inhibit the type of revolutionary change promoted by leftist groups during the 1960s, feel free to tune in through any of the platform links found at theidentityparadox.com.

Interested in an “unapologetic Black, leftist, working-class” perspective on current sociopolitical events? If so, join us as we speak with Nick Cruse, citizen journalist and co-founder of Revolutionary Blackout Network. We discuss a variety of topics, including the importance of independent Black, working-class commentary in an age of corporatized journalism, the leftist failures of electoral politics in the US, the absence of an established leftist perspective in mainstream media, the challenges of social media activism (particularly the “BreadTube” effect), as well as the potential to change the current status quo through ground-up, working class solidarity.

In part 2 of Episode 7, we continue to discuss the manner in which authoritarian thinking infiltrates American politics. We briefly review the horseshoe model to demonstrate the false equivalence between a far-right established politics and a far-left. We then show how an absent leftist politics creates the conditions for neo-fascist ideas and practices to infect both sides of the supposed left/right political divide. Part two is dedicated primarily to examining the political duopoly that defines US politics and how this empowers disaggregated or neo-corporatism, which is what allows for a “fascist creep” along capitalist lines. We conclude by examining some potential ways of combating the intensification of neo-corporatism in the US in light of an absent, authentically leftist politics. We try to include definitions and illustrations to help elucidate these points, so if some of these ideas are new to you, please join us as this episode might prove beneficial. (Recorded on February 21, 2022)

In this episode we discuss the manner in which authoritarian thinking infiltrates American politics and how this problem has been intensified by what some scholars and activists call the fascist “creep” or “drift”—how fascist ideas and practices infect both sides of the left/right political divide. Part one of this two-part episode is dedicated primarily to examining the reductive politics around the left/right divide, what the absence of a leftist party entails, and how this absence leads to a false equivalency that allows fascism to “creep” or “drift” from right wing extremism into leftist politics. We try to include definitions and illustrations to help elucidate these points, so if some of these ideas are new to you, please join us as this episode might prove beneficial.