Disir
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The black feminist Combahee River Collective manifesto and E. Franklin Frazierâs Black Bourgeoisie share the diagnosis that the wealthy and powerful will take every opportunity to hijack activist energies for their own ends.
OLĂFẸĚMI O. TĂĂWĂ
In an April 2020 op-ed for the Washington Post, recent Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang argues that Asian Americans ought to âstep upâ and visibly support relief efforts in order to combat the racist hostility that has accompanied the rise of COVID-19. The appeal is an example of identity politics, though not of the sort that the terms calls to mind for most people. Identity politics is usually thought of as advocacy on behalf of a group, rooted in the groupâs collective victimization. But often, whether by accident or design, identity politics serves a narrower set of interests, such as the electoral goals of a Democratic candidate. Yangâs argument, for instance, tasks the very group targeted by racism with proving itself worthy of being American, while at the same time asking little of the countryâs non-Asian majority, whose votes his political future depends upon.
The term âidentity politicsâ was first popularized by the 1977 manifesto of the Combahee River Collective, an organization of black feminist activists. In a recent interview with the Root and in an op-ed at the Guardian, Barbara Smith, a founding member of the collective, addresses common misconceptions about the term. The manifesto, she explains, was written by black women claiming the right to set their own political agendas. They werenât establishing themselves as a moral aristocracyâthey were building a political viewpoint out of common experience to work toward âcommon problems.â As such, they were strongly in favor of diverse people working in coalition, an approach that for Smith was exemplified by the Bernie Sanders campaignâs grassroots approach and its focus on social issues that people of many identities face, especially âbasic needs of food, housing and healthcare.â According to Smith, todayâs uses of the concept are often âvery different than what we intended.â âWe absolutely did not mean that we would work with people who were only identical to ourselves,â she insists. âWe strongly believed in coalitions and working with people across various identities on common problems.â
bostonreview.net
And then it was hijacked.
OLĂFẸĚMI O. TĂĂWĂ
In an April 2020 op-ed for the Washington Post, recent Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang argues that Asian Americans ought to âstep upâ and visibly support relief efforts in order to combat the racist hostility that has accompanied the rise of COVID-19. The appeal is an example of identity politics, though not of the sort that the terms calls to mind for most people. Identity politics is usually thought of as advocacy on behalf of a group, rooted in the groupâs collective victimization. But often, whether by accident or design, identity politics serves a narrower set of interests, such as the electoral goals of a Democratic candidate. Yangâs argument, for instance, tasks the very group targeted by racism with proving itself worthy of being American, while at the same time asking little of the countryâs non-Asian majority, whose votes his political future depends upon.
The term âidentity politicsâ was first popularized by the 1977 manifesto of the Combahee River Collective, an organization of black feminist activists. In a recent interview with the Root and in an op-ed at the Guardian, Barbara Smith, a founding member of the collective, addresses common misconceptions about the term. The manifesto, she explains, was written by black women claiming the right to set their own political agendas. They werenât establishing themselves as a moral aristocracyâthey were building a political viewpoint out of common experience to work toward âcommon problems.â As such, they were strongly in favor of diverse people working in coalition, an approach that for Smith was exemplified by the Bernie Sanders campaignâs grassroots approach and its focus on social issues that people of many identities face, especially âbasic needs of food, housing and healthcare.â According to Smith, todayâs uses of the concept are often âvery different than what we intended.â âWe absolutely did not mean that we would work with people who were only identical to ourselves,â she insists. âWe strongly believed in coalitions and working with people across various identities on common problems.â
Identity Politics and Elite Capture
The black feminist Combahee River Collective manifesto and E. Franklin Frazierâs Black Bourgeoisie share the diagnosis that the wealthy and powerful will take every opportunity to hijack activist energies for their own ends.
bostonreview.net
And then it was hijacked.
