A Relevant History Lesson: Identity Politics

Hello Alamo!

There is a piece of history I did not know, and I am rectifying that for all of us today!

So. We’ve heard the term identity politics thrown around every which way the past at least decade that I can personally remember.

I thought it was just something made up to discredit marginalized people for having an identity outside of cis-het whiteness and tacking on politics because religion and politics are supposedly impolite conversation. It made absolute sense to me seeing how this society fuctions.

Of course my assessment is partially correct.

To my absolute surprise, though (I say with very heavy sarcasm), it’s even more insidious than that.

Though I will genuinely say I am a little surprised that bad faith actors are still taking the time to intentionally skew the meaning of a genuine historical phrase.

In 1977, the Combahee River Collective released a Statement coining that term. The Collective consisted of Black feminists, at least one of whom was also a lesbian. I can talk about intersectionality forever, and I probably will if not next week, in February. I will refrain because Identity Politics are a bit of a precursor to that.

Treating people and their identities as completely separated from the political landscape is naive at best.

Racism, sexism, homophobia, ableism, etc. are all biases that keep proving to be very significant factors in how we experience life in this country. Women earn less than men in the same job. Women of color earn even less than white women and white men doing the same job. Men of color made up 34% of the US population in 2023, yet 64% of the population in correctional facilities because their communities are over-policed. To actually gain any ground in rectifying those systemic biases, identity had to take on a political framework, and it still very much does.

Knowing all of that and looking at how identity politics are treated as either some kind of distraction for the working class, or as ridiculous and completely inconsequential to reality, can it be considered anything but malicious? Nothing will ever get better unless the goal includes better for multiply-marginalized people as well.

Salud.