What Are Identity Politics? A Vision of Solidarity Rooted in Black Feminism
"In Black Feminist Politics From Kennedy to Clinton, Duchess Harris cites one CRC member who had this to say about identity politics: “This was the kind of politics that had never been done or practiced before to our knowledge…it had never been quite formulated in the way that we were trying to formulate it, particularly because we were talking about homophobia, lesbian identity, as well. There were politics that took everything into account as opposed to saying leave your feminism, your gender, your sexual orientation, you leave that outside.…We meant politics that came out of the various identities that we had that really worked for us. It gave us a way to move, a way to make change. It was not the reductive version that theorists now really criticize.…We took on the contradictions of being in the U.S. and living in U.S. society under this system.…And we said, instead of being bowled over by it and destroyed by it, we are going to make it into something vital and inspiring.”
Comments