[Peace-discuss] More on Identity Politics

[Alfred Kagan]

Nobody here is arguing against the need for solidarity on the left, 
although folks can argue about the best ways and means to develop 
solidarity.  It is very easy, too easy, for white people to argue 
against organizing around a common oppression.  White people who do 
this in a strident way can be accused of racism.

It should not be so hard to understand that there are many ways to 
fight around many issues. We should welcome that various groups pursue 
their own issues in the ways that they feel are best for their causes. 
Our task is to find the best ways to work with as many groups as 
possible for the best solidarity for the issues that we want to pursue.

I think we are in the middle of redefining AWARE's identity.  That is 
not a bad thing, but it is causing some stresses and strains. Although 
I was not at AWARE's first meeting, I was there early on. It seems to 
me that the original idea was to integrate work against war and racism. 
Our practice has been to concentrate on war, with racism as an 
afterthought. We are now struggling to more fully address racism, and 
we don't yet know how to do that.

  I suggest that we try to imagine how to more fully integrate war and 
racism work instead of playing off one against the other.


On Jan 6, 2005, at 4:18 PM, David Green wrote:

> Narcissus and the Mind/Body Problem
>
> By Betsy Hartmann
>
> Maybe it's because it's the darkest time of the year,
> or the Christmas consumption rush when we're all
> supposed to be experiencing brotherhood and love at
> the cash register, or the horrific daily reports of
> violence in Iraq that make me yearn for voices of real
> moral authority calling for real peace, real justice,
> real love. The Right of course has their voices, from
> the fire and brimstone of the pulpits, to the
> invective of Limbaugh and O'Reilly, to the softer
> Orwellian drawl from the White House telling us we are
> killing people to liberate them. The Democrats, it
> appears, have a terminal case of neoliberal
> laryngitis. And the Left? Left out? Left behind? Or
> yet to overcome our fractured identity politics to
> find a universalizing message that can inspire?
>
> Narcissus fell in love with his own image reflected in
> the water, an unrequited passion that ultimately
> consumed him and he wasted away. Sometimes I think the
> U.S. Left could learn from the myth of Narcissus. When
> we gaze into the political mirror, we want - and
> expect - to see our own kind. We are more concerned
> with our own identities than with finding common
> ground with different ones.
>
> Clearly, identity-based formations are often powerful
> and positive ways to mobilize people and to challenge
> prevailing hierarchies. But in the U.S. the way
> identity politics gets embodied can be problematic.
> Consumer capitalism thrives on a narcissistic
> obsession with appearances: our bodies R us. Given
> that we live in the most crassly consumerist society
> on the planet, it is not surprising that this ethos
> affects even those on the Left. We are obsessed with
> bodies and their appearances: whether they are black
> or white, queer or straight, young or old, male or
> female. Sometimes we are more obsessed with bodies
> than with minds.
>
> It doesn't help, of course, that the Right is obsessed
> with bodies too -- with controlling them. Racism,
> homophobia, and misogyny force us to defend our bodies
> and to define ourselves politically through that
> defense. We are reduced to our bodies even when we
> don't want to be. In building bridges between our
> various struggles, we too often link in an add-on way:
> issue plus issue plus issue, but the parts do not
> equal a substantive and substantial whole. We lack an
> overarching framework, a universalizing discourse that
> can mobilize more than just ourselves. The Right has
> been much more attentive to that need.
>
> We are trapped in a sort of vicious cycle. Without a
> powerful and convincing moral script, it becomes
> harder to break out of our identity formations, and
> the political parochialism that ensues makes it even
> harder to develop a broader vision. We are trapped
> looking at our own reflections in the water.
>
> How do we get out? How do we win the fight for hearts
> and minds? I don't think we can rely on rhetoricians
> and spin doctors to do it for us, though some new
> language would certainly help. Maybe the first step is
> to acknowledge that we are influenced more than we
> realize by consumer culture and that our obsession
> with appearance and identity may have something to do
> with the perverse logic of the marketplace that sells
> difference as a way of ensuring conformity. A little
> political self-reflection is in order, rather than
> staring like Narcissus in the reflecting pool.
>
> -- Betsy Hartmann directs the Population and
> Development Program at Hampshire College in Amherst,
> MA. She is the author of Reproductive Rights and
> Wrongs and The Truth about Fire, a political thriller
> about the Far Right.
>
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>
>
Al Kagan
African Studies Bibliogrpaher and Professor of Library Administration
University of Illinois Library
1408 W. Gregory Drive
Urbana, IL 61801

tel. 217-333-6519
fax 217-333-2214
akagan at uiuc.edu
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