Mar
16

 

Black Reconstruction as a Portal Logo

“The Reformist Is a Cop: Theorizing ‘Counterinsurgency’ in the (Alleged) Abolitionist Moment”

with

Dylan Rodriguez, Professor in the Media and Cultural Studies Department at UC Riverside and author of White Reconstruction: Domestic Warfare and the Logics of Genocide 

Thursday, March 16th at 4pm 

HG 1341

*

This offering considers how “social justice” oriented forms of progressivism and liberalism, particularly liberal reformism, compose an ensemble of counterinsurgency in the contemporary and ongoing moment. Under the tyranny of reformism, “reform” is not merely the primary method of social change/justice, it is also the imaginative and epistemic horizon of any attempt to transform the meaning, institutionality, and collective experience of freedom, self-determination, (health, food, housing, educational) security, and liberated being. The United States military defines counterinsurgency as “a holistic approach aimed at weakening the insurgents while simultaneously bolstering the government’s legitimacy in the eyes of the contested population.” It is worth asking the question: To what extent do high-profile (and often highly-funded) social justice organizations, public (academic) intellectuals, progressive elected officials, social movement spokespeople, and philanthropic foundations undertake campaigns, organizing initiatives, mass mobilizations, and other projects that effectively advance this concept of counterinsurgency?

Rodriguez flyer

"Black Reconstruction as a Portal" is a year-long Sawyer Seminar at the University of California, Irvine that explores the global salience of visions for Black Reconstruction as a portal between the crisis that marks our current predicament and the freedom dreams of those who have taken to the streets insisting that another world is still possible. For more information, go to: https://blackreconstructionasaportal.org or follow us on Twitter @ReadingDubois