Over drinks in a mid-afternoon session the day after Kamala Harris’ historic candidacy was defeated, I heard a colleague argue that “identity politics is dead.” He thought the gamble was a lost one, with Harris nominated for her identity as a woman and a woman of color. Consideration of social identity in elections has long been dismissed as “woke” by conservatives. President Trump calls it “identitarianism,” a term used in Europe to refer to ethnic nationalism. But now even liberal New York Times columnists like Maureen Dowd are suggesting that identity politics has alienated half the country and cost us elections. Dowd says there needs to be a “wake for those who woke up.”
Another theme of post-election chatter is that Latino and black men are to blame for the rise of fascism in the United States, despite the fact that vast numbers of white men and women elected Trump. is.
Well, I don’t think identity politics is dead.
But it’s certainly debatable. Efforts to promote “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) policies at every major institution have turned into a public relations campaign to protect the institution’s brand and maintain the status quo as much as possible. Keeanga-Yamatta Taylor calls this a way of rebranding privilege, aiming for maximum benefit with minimum change.
Consider Harvard University. With a current endowment of $53 billion and only 21,000 full-time students, Harvard University cannot establish legitimacy by doing DEI. There is no justification for being a private educational institution that pays no taxes and has minimal public oversight. Diversity masks the structural injustices that are evident in Harvard’s very existence. The same applies to all private educational institutions in this country.
In full disclosure, I went to Brown University to get my PhD on a full fellowship. There is no doubt that the Ivy League’s irrational imprimatur played a role in my successful exploration of the tough job market of philosophy. But more than that, I also received an excellent education in Marxist theory at Brown University. But you don’t need a private institution to get a good education.
After attending two poorly funded public universities in the South, I went to an Ivy League school and learned a lot about classes. This was my first time hearing about a trust fund. Brown didn’t have just one library. There were five. All students were provided with adequate computer support, which was very important before personal computers. When I attended there were about 6,000 students. I felt firsthand how class is reproduced. When I taught there as a graduate student, my students would read the New York Times and read all their assignments before coming to class. Their vocabulary was better than mine.
However, these gated educational communities are not justified in a democracy. Brown University was founded with money from slave labor, but it took Ruth Simmons, a black president from a poor background, to examine this history and force the institution to confront the issue.
But Brown’s response to this sordid past was superficial and minimal. They didn’t unlock the gate, they just hung a new sign on it. When identity politics is used to put lipstick on pigs (sorry pig friends), truth shines through. No one can seriously be fooled into thinking we have achieved meaningful social justice when Brown is wringing his hands and clutching at the money.
Origins of identity politics
The concept of identity politics emerged in the 1970s from a manifesto written by the Combahee River Collective, a group of black, working-class, primarily lesbian feminists. Frustrated by the limitations of the political sensibilities of both male-dominated black liberation groups and white-dominated radical feminist groups, they created groups in which they were temporarily in the majority. They were then able to set the agenda and develop a more thorough understanding of their own specific forms of structural oppression. You will also probably develop leadership and organizational skills without having to compete with others who have received a private school education.
Considering a wide range of forms of diversity (including not only class but also other forms of disempowering groups) can help advance knowledge, not just disseminate or rebrand it. Masu. The diversification of scientific research teams in both the natural and social sciences has led to significant advances in our understanding of gender pay gaps, same-sex behavior in animals and insects, obstacles to vaccine distribution, and intergenerational wealth transfers. New questions are asked, new hypotheses are generated and pursued, evidence from data is evaluated in new ways, and patterns that were previously missed are detected. The results have led to changes in medicine, biology, economics, botany, anthropology, climate science, and all STEM fields. The National Research Council has been working on DEI programs for decades to help educational institutions diversify in meaningful ways.
DEI was founded by a social movement and has influenced many areas of society, but not corporate power. As my NYU colleague Paisley Kara said, Goldman Sachs is flying the rainbow flag.
Harris’ candidacy was a perfect example. Of course she was talented. Neither identity politics nor DEI requires sacrificing competency. But corporate powers need to find people to do their part, even to the point of continuing the genocidal war. Harris was perfect.
The fact that her gender and ethnicity were used to discredit her and that is why some people voted against her shows us that we need identity politics. I am. But I need to create a more fundamental version.
The ongoing educational inequalities in poor communities are not being addressed by Ivy diversification. Nor can Goldman Sachs’ DEI policies address poverty in general. But social justice movements will fail if they refuse to acknowledge that social identities still function as vectors of social oppression, neglect, and violence.
And you will jump to the conclusion that Latinos and black men are to blame for the rise of fascism.
white voters
What is striking about this accusation is the way it acquits white voters. But it also refuses to engage with President Trump’s white supporters, a majority of whom exit polls show have not attended college. For many liberals, this group is considered untouchable, unchangeable, and irrational. This has been the Democratic Party’s strategy for decades.
Focus on people of color, cities, and people who already identify as liberal. Let the white male workers go to the fascists.
Identity plays a role here too, folks. The intersection of race, class, and gender (in this case, white male workers) creates neglect and fear.
Identity influences how we experience this society and how society experiences us. These differences create different assumptions about the history of the group, areas of emotion, judgments of authenticity, trust, and, in some cases, knowledge (or ignorance). Identity cannot be ignored from politics. It never was, and it’s still noticeable. The left must be smarter about how it works, how it is used against social justice, and how it can be reclaimed. In fact, identity politics is essential.
