All identity requires an ‘other’ against which it is defined
Evidence
Another way of putting the point would be to note that, by definition, a multicultural society always involved more than one group. There has to be some framework in which serious conflicts of outlook, belief, and interest can be negotiated, and this cannot be simply the framework of one group writ large, which was the problem with Eurocentric assimilationism. The specific and particular “difference” of a group or community cannot be asserted absolutely, without regard to the wider context provided by all those “others” in relation to whom “particularity” acquires a relative value. Philosophically, the logic of différance means that the meaning/identity of every concept is constituted in relation to all the other concepts in the system in terms of which alone it signifies. A particular cultural identity cannot be defined only by its positive presence and content. All identity terms depend on marking their limits—defining what they are in relation to what they are not. As Laclau argues, “I cannot assert a differential identity without distinguishing it from a context, and in the process of making the distinction, I am asserting the context at the same time” (Laclau 1996). — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2, 371 (
#corroborates, via linked claim)
Categorization
- XREF: connects to: Identities co-create each other so no category has analytic priority — Cyra Akila Choudhury, Racecraft and Identity in the Emergence…, 83; Identity is constituted by context and asserted only as a partial account. — Mary Bucholtz and Kira Hall, Identity and Interaction: A…, 109; Identity is constituted through exclusion of what it is not (+8 more)
Broader Connections
- Identity is constituted through exclusion of what it is not
#corroborates(0.97) - Every identity is constituted relationally through what it excludes
#corroborates(0.96) — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2, 371 - Identity is defined oppositionally, against those one is not.
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