Chapter Abstract
Who do we think we are? Our idea of who we think we are is often based on something called identity, which could include national, ethnic, racial, gender, class, sexual or religious identity. To think about the question of identity, this chapter will do two things: (a) begin to see how we are always already subjected to identity politics, and (b) examine what some of the implications of being identified (or identifying) with a particular group can be in global politics. This chapter will begin by explaining why identity is such an important concept before moving on to take a closer look at how identity politics play out in the particular case of activist movements in the United States and what the experiences of movements for women’s, indigenous and black rights can teach us about identity politics in other settings.
Additional web content and audio-visual materials
1. American Anthropological Association, RACE: Are We So Different?, http://www.understandingrace.org/home.html. An extensive website (and exhibition) that examines race through multiple lenses.
2. Black Lives Matter, https://blacklivesmatter.com/. The official website of the #BlackLivesMatter movement.
3. Global Social Theory, www.globalsocialtheory.org. A resource for students, teachers, academics, and others interested in social theory and wishing to understand it in global perspective.
4. Heyes, Crissida (2002) Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: ‘Identity Politics’, http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/identity-politics/. Part of the extensive online Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, this entry on identity politics explores many of the issues raised in this chapter from a philosophical perspective (in reference to many different markers of identity) and provides additional links.
5. Human Rights Watch (1999) Leave None to Tell the Story: Genocide in Rwanda, http://www.hrw.org/reports/1999/rwanda/. A detailed report on the genocide in Rwanda, with an update on the tenth anniversary in 2004.
6. SSRC, Is Race ‘Real’?, http://raceandgenomics.ssrc.org/. This forum, organized by the Social Science Research Council, discusses recent controversies surrounding race after recent advances in genetics.
7. The World Wide Web Virtual Library, History: Yugoslavia (1918–1995), http://vlib.iue.it/history/europe/yugoslavia.html. An extensive website useful for further research on historical information (also has some maps).
Additional reading
Campbell, David (1998) National Deconstruction: Violence, Identity and Justice in Bosnia. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
A detailed analysis of the identity politics at play during the break-up of the former Yugoslavia. In 1999, the book received a prize for being the best English-language publication on the topic.
Collins, Patricia Hill (2000 [1990]) Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment. Boston: Unwin Hyman.
For students who want to learn more about the intersections of gender and race (but also other forms of oppression), this is a ‘must read’. It also provides some of the best ideas out there for moving beyond identity politics and toward justice.
Gourevitch, Phillip (1998) We Wish to Inform You that Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families: Stories from Rwanda, London: Picador.
Probably the best account of the Rwandan genocide, based on a series of interviews with Rwandans between 1995 and 1998. Not for the faint-hearted.
Ryan, Barbara (ed.) (2001) Identity Politics in the Women’s Movement, New York: New York University Press.