Identity politics

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Identity politics, often abreviated to 'idpol', is a political approach based on identifying common experiences within subjective identities, rather than building a broad coalition around shared class interests or political beliefs.

Historical roots of identity politics

The earliest known use of the term 'identity politics' dates back to a statement made by the lesbian black feminist group Combahee River Collective in 1977 [1] which claimed that; "...the most profound and potentially most radical politics come directly out of our own identity, as opposed to working to end somebody else's oppression" [2]. In simple terms, it is a form of political thought which focuses on individual experiences of persecution and suffering with the aim of illustrating the entirety of racism, sexism, homophobia, etc against individuals that may be lost in the broader movement of left wing action. However, this hyperfocus on individual experiences and the often accusatory tone of this kind of politics has troubling implications for the sustainability of a broad or class-based political movement. [3]

Contradiction with class politics

Among socialists opposed to identity politics, identity politics is seen as a tendency to disregard action and rhetoric based on the concept of class struggle. The concept of class is substituted with ideas about oppression based on social factors like race, gender, or sexuality, making left wing activism essentially toothless in fighting the ruling classes. In addition to diverting the attention of the left away from economic justice, identity politics also arguably leads to schisms in the working class which arguably hampers the solidarity and class consciousness of the workers. Critics would claim that that identitarianism divides people by arbitrary traits and focuses them on dominating one another instead of their collective oppression by the ruling class. This difficulty and division can take many forms at different levels of organisation.

Anti-idpol leftists argue that the difference here is that whatever differences exist between "identity" groups are arbitrary and mostly orthogonal to the way capitalism functions. Identitarian strife could exist in basically any form: all that really matters to capitalism is that there is some kind of division to keep proles fighting each other. class, on the other hand, is a material relationship that exists as a necessary part of capitalism (even if you had "market socialism" i.e. classless capitalism, a capitalist class would probably re-emerge). Worker vs owner is not identity politics because, while there are identities attached to these roles, the roles constitute the mode of production itself, rather than mere variations within those roles that you see, as between 1st and 3rd world workers (for example).

Leftists who reject identity politics may refer to themselves as 'anti-idpol', or are sometimes called class reductionists by their ideological opponents.

Types of identity politics

Right-wing

European imperialism could be called identity politics at a global scale. European colonisers imposed their cultural identity on much of the world.

Ethno-nationalist movements could be defined as identity politics at a national level. Ethno-nationalists propagate theories on class collaboration within the "proletarian nations". The United States and many other countries divide the proletariat racially and turn worker against worker over differential treatment originating in hegemony based conflicts. In addition, nationality itself could be regarded as a form of arbitrarily imposed identity which is used to divide the working class globally, though this analysis far predates the term 'identity politics'.

There is a historical precedent of ethno-nationalists working together despite their apparently contradictory claims. Marcus Garvey, prominent black ultranationalist and businessman is quoted as saying “I regard the Klan, the Anglo-Saxon clubs and White American societies, as far as the Negro is concerned, as better friends of the race than all other groups of hypocritical whites put together.” The Nation of Islam has also worked with the Ku Klux Klan and infamously held joint meetings with the American Nazi Party.[4]

Left-wing

Contemporary liberal feminism is often considered to be a form of identity politics, as are many conceptions of minority rights advocacy, much of the LGBT movement, and even certain liberal efforts to tackle 'classism', which views the working class more as an identity whose unique culture should not be denigrated, than as a group which should be abolished as a distinct identity along with the existence of class as a whole.

Recommended Reading

References

  1. Smith, Barbara, ed. (1983). Home Girls: A Black Feminist Anthology. New York, NY: Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press. pp. xxxi–xxxii. ISBN 0-913175-02-1.
  2. "The Combahee River Collective Statement". Archived from the original on 24 February 2017. Retrieved 4 April 2016.
  3. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/identity-politics/
  4. McPheeters, Sam, ed. (2015). "When Malcolm X Met the Nazis".{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)