21st century identity politics joins in making our American society unite, however there are many levels of division to it. Using Identity politics allows recognition and attention shined on different groups surrounding the topics of race, gender, ethnicity and more. They use this method to exceed in prompting their interests, issues or concerns. More examples of topics in the past that have been discussed in the media when people are usually referring to identity politics are same sex marriage, gender fluid, transgender people and more. The importance of identity politics still stands and rises to this day because when groups feel belittled or threatened as opposed to others, they resort to this common topic to help bring attention to it. Although, many see identity politics in the 21st century can have both a good and bad effect across the world.
The Power of Identity Politics speaks volume because of how impactful and evident the message is as I read throughout the article. As stated, identity politics has become so demonized by American conservatives but it still remains and holds significance and impacts the lives around us and our futures constantly, in ways we may not realize. Identity politics is a call for help “for people who aren’t white, heterosexual, cisgender men.” This describes the experiences of how it feels to live outside the normalized living standards in the United States and instead encourages struggle and how important it is to help these groups that are suffering. It has been proven time and time again that white people, white groups and white culture hold some type of superiority over everyone else and further hold more control in our society. It is most often that the upbringing in African Americans is ignored but they face one of the hardest problems and white people don’t realize how privileged they are. There are several different types of identity politics in this article but this one shines out the most to me because Black people have cried out for help for as long as America can remember, constantly being degraded and seen as less of a human solely due to the color of their skin. It is a shame some people in the world still live and think this way towards them and do nothing to change when in fact, we are all the same. Not just Black people but that goes for every struggling group as well. Everyone should acknowledge that we’re all human and everyone deserves the same amount of rights and respect.
This next article discusses the struggle of not fitting in the particular stereotypical standard of being Latina and being Black. The woman in the article recalls her first race crisis as a young girl, in school, being talked badly upon by the other students due to “not fitting in with the other students.” Her experiences further shows how it is a difficult task to face being Black but being Latina as well. She goes on to state “When the violence broke out in middle school between the African-american gangs and the Hispanic gangs and the students spoke among themselves on who was best I could remember screaming “I don’t know who to side with!” When I got into high school and a classmate told me “You’re the most Mexican black girl I’ve ever met!” I could remember thinking ‘Is that a compliment because my family is from Honduras?” She often feels restricted with her identity and people often attempt to classify her as one race but not the other and that is an extremely deteriorating environment to grow up around. She has taught herself that just because she doesn’t fit into one specific mold, does not mean she is any less of herself. Everyone should have the same mindset, despite what you identity as, no one can take that away from you.
