Politics and Exhaustion — with Asad Haider

Theorist and author Asad Haider joins Below the Radar to discuss questions he explores in his book, "Mistaken Identity: Race and Class in the Age of Trump." Asad discusses how class dynamics cannot be separated from identity-driven movements.

As well, he explores ideas of political exhaustion in the tradition of political theorists such as Sylvain Lazarus and Alain Badiou.

In this interview, Asad interrogates the role of identity in politics and how it has been taken up in discourse — complicating the relationship between race and class in a context that has been defined by capital interests. Asad and Am discuss theoretical questions around frameworks for political organizing and solidarity across movements. He also speaks to our current moment as one of political exhaustion, where it’s difficult to mobilize transformative political change.

Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/119-asad-haider.html

Read the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/119-asad-haider.html

— Asad Haider’s website: http://www.asadhaider.com/
— Mistaken Identity: Race and Class in the Age of Trump by Asad Haider: https://www.versobooks.com/books/2716-mistaken-identity
— “Emancipation & Exhaustion” - South Asian Avant Garde Anthology: https://saaganthology.com/Emancipation-and-Exhaustion
— Viewpoint Magazine: https://viewpointmag.com/
— Review: “Mistaken Identity by Asad Haider review – the best criticism of identity politics” - The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/may/31/mistaken-identity-by-asad-haider-review
— Revolutionary Suicide by Huey P. Newton: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/300589/revolutionary-suicide-by-huey-p-newton/9780143105329

Bio:
Asad Haider is a founding Editor of Viewpoint Magazine, an investigative journal of contemporary politics. He is the author of Mistaken Identity and a co-editor for The Black Radical Tradition (forthcoming). His writing can be found in The Baffler, n+1, The Point, Salon, and elsewhere.

Cite this episode:
Chicago Style

Johal, Am. “Politics and Exhaustion — with Asad Haider.” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, May 4, 2021. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/119-asad-haider.html.