Trotsky saw Black national self-determination as revolutionary awakening, not a step backward

Evidence

Trotsky: It is too abstract, because the realization of this slogan can be reached only as the 13 or 14 million Negroes feel that the domination by the whites is terminated. To fight for the possibility of realizing an independent state is a sign of great moral and political awakening. It would be a tremendous revolutionary step. — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 2442