The Combahee River Collective developed the term “identity politics” when they realized that the women’s movement didn’t really represent black women, Black freedom movement only focused on the liberation of black men and queer black women were neglected on both fonts. This demonstrated how liberation based on one’s identity was more significant and powerful rather than fighting for someone else’s struggles. It is easier to accept the status quo if it doesn’t affect you personally and you have no stakes either way. This sentiment is echoed in Garza’s The Politics of Identity when she highlights how she has witnessed white people’s ideologies of “not seeing color” as a reformative action against the oppression of people of color. For them, it is easy to not hold on to their identities as white people because they are considered the norm, the default, the standard of a Christian American Society. People of color, whose daily interactions are carved by the societal perceptions of their identity, don’t have the same luxury. You can’t say “I identify as a human” when you’re racially profiled because of your race, deemed inferior because of your gender, verbally (and physically) abused because of your ethnicity, sexuality etc. When our political, economic and social systems are founded on disparity based on identities, rejecting “identity politics” not just undermines the effects of oppression, it also obstructs the efforts being made to bridge the gap.

One might argue that identity politics is counterproductive, that separating ourselves based on our identities won’t help us in unifying ourselves. However, they fail to understand that this idea is solely for the benefit of the oppressors, for their convenience and comfort. True equality can only come when we accept the difference in our identities, and understand that these differences do not warrant difference in treatment. If we look at William’s Too Latina to be Black, Too Black to be Latina, we can see that as a kid she never identified with a specific group, but that didn’t stop society from trying to fit her in a specific mold, or consider her a deviant because she didn’t. She had to engage in identity politics at a young age, when she didn’t even know what it meant. Furthermore, identity politics doesn’t mean limiting yourself to one aspect of your identity, it doesn’t segregate us into different groups. Rather, it helps us recognize the intersectionality among the groups and can help unify us on the basis of the multifaceted nature of human identity.

I have enjoyed every single topic we have discussed in this class. I know there’s still so much to learn and it’s hard to pick one but if I had to, I think I would want to read articles that discuss how the patriarchal society pits women against each other in the guise of rewarding the “deserving”, when in reality we all share the same fate.