Identity politics presumes identity guarantees politics when it is actually forged through struggle

Evidence

A central concern with the contemporary discussion around “identity politics” is that the dilemmas and questions outlined here are not adequately addressed. This is largely because much discussion is underpinned by the presumption that one’s identity necessarily defines one’s politics and that there can be no politics until the subject has excavated or laid claim to his or her social identity. Inherent in such positions is the failure to understand the way in which identity grows out of, and is transformed by, action and struggle. This is one of the dangers of the preoccupation with exactly who is covered by the category “black” in contemporary British society. The usage of the notion of black to cover a variety of diverse communities has been rejected by some scholars in favor of other categories such as Asian, Muslim, or African-Caribbean. Yet others have sought to argue for a notion of “black” grounded in “racial” particularity. But the danger with these approaches is that one is presented with no more than a strategy of simple inversion. Here, the old bad black essentialist subject is replaced by a new good black essentialist subject whose identity necessarily guarantees a correct politics. — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 121

Categorization

Category: Contrarian or Surprising Claims

• XREF: Echoes the ‘simple inversion’ critique of essentialist identity politics familiar from earlier chapters on race and identity; connects to the debate over whether ‘black’ as a category covers diverse British communities.

Related

• Identity arises from action and struggle rather than preceding politics (similarity 0.93)
• Essentialist anti-racist discourse reproduces the biology it claims to oppose. (similarity 0.82)
• Multiple sometimes conflicting identities can coexist in one subject’s politics (similarity 0.82)
• Black political identity is historically constructed and always positional, never essential. (similarity 0.81)
• White supremacy makes black identity politics necessary yet insufficient (similarity 0.81)
• Identity is a political claim to belonging, not a fixed trait (similarity 0.80)
• Assuming political unity by race denies black people genuine political agency. (similarity 0.80)
• Identity politics freezes identity in false shapes for political convenience. (similarity 0.80)
• Race and ethnicity function as political resources for both dominant and subordinate groups. (similarity 0.80)
• A strategic political identity can unite people across skin-color differences (similarity 0.79)
• Identity formation responds to external social pressures rather than pure self-selection (similarity 0.79)
• Black identity is politically constructed, not grounded in fixed biological categories. (similarity 0.79)
• Identity defense readily slides into nationalism and racism over power to define (similarity 0.79)
• Essentialist identity politics can be a necessary defense where no alternative exists. (similarity 0.78)
• New racial identities can form in response to racism itself (similarity 0.78)