Identity Politics

Identity politics is the political activity and theories rooted in social justice for marginalized, oppressed, or disadvantaged social groups. [Page 368]Throughout the second half of the 20th century and into the 21st century, there has been increased politicization of identity. Thus, it is important to understand why identity politics has become one of the core issues of identity after almost 60 years. What follows is a broad overview of the concept, its history, the major positions of its proponents and opponents, and a projection of its future.

Identity politics represents the discourse and activism of the oppressed, the disadvantaged, the minority, and the dominated and their struggles for justice, recognition, autonomy, power, and equal opportunities and rights as members of a society. Identity politics is both individual and collective. However, most of the transformative nature of identity politics has come from the collective, the social group—African Americans, gays and lesbians, women, the disabled, Native Americans, aboriginals, and other identities.

The power to fix identity into our lives and institutions is an ongoing struggle of power and control—knowledge, political, social, cultural, economic. These struggles presented themselves in radical social movements from the mid-20th century. Marginalized people, the other, organized in various group affiliations to politicize race, sexuality, interpersonal relations, lifestyles, and culture. The Black civil rights movement, the second wave of the feminist movement, anticolonial national movements, gay rights movements, disabled movements, and American Indian movements were organized to change the social, cultural, economic, and political conditions of the oppressed, disadvantaged, and marginalized.

Scholars date the beginning of identity politics to the civil rights movement of Martin Luther King Jr., the Black Power movement, and global anticolonial movements, where activists called for a new collective identity to offset White imperialism. Second-wave feminism, gay and lesbian liberation, and other social identity movements followed and led to transformative moments in relations among the dominated and the dominant.

Identity politics is also anchored in consciousness raising; in transforming one's sense of self and community from a position of inferiority to equality—embracing self-esteem and self-worth. Proponents of this aspect of identity politics come together based on similar experiences as a social group; this bond empowers members of that group to organize for social change. Group solidarity against their oppressors allows members of the group to transform their sense of self and community.

The discourse of identity politics has created a vast body of knowledge that oscillates between the proponents or adherents of identity politics and the opponents or dissidents. Reflections on “who we are” on the identity spectrum is evident in the many consciousness-raising literary works of the 19th and early 20th centuries. However, it was not until the last half of the 20th century that academics and activists used the term identity politics and defined its philosophical underpinnings. The discursive represents models of the self, political inclusiveness, solidarity, and resistance. It is a discourse centered on the struggle for political voice by marginalized groups in society.

Ideologies of identity politics and the social movements also created new identity-based scholarship. Identity programs were started at many colleges and universities: Women's studies, Black studies, Chicano studies, postcolonial studies, and other identity-based programs were established. Marginalized social groups pushed for scholarly representations of their lives and experiences that were more balanced—more truthful and less distorted—and they wanted more diverse and inclusive faculty. These programs provided a wealth of scholarship and diversified the body of knowledge on human experiences.

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