I found Alicia Garza’s chapter to be super helpful in beginning to understand identity politics with more clarity. In reading, I realized just how confused I was with the term since last week’s content. “The “identity” in identity politics is a way of describing what it means to live outside what has been defined as the norm in the United States” (Garza, 187) and I grasp now that this means that this norm is essentially white identity politics. There were so many moments Garza just hit the spot with her explanations and again had me wrestling with my thoughts about the world we live in like when Garza mentions “In other words, if white people had not created false classifications for people based on skin color or genitalia or class status in order to maintain power and privilege over others, would we even be having this conversation?” (191). By the time I got to where she describes identity as the elephant in America’s room, I felt really fueled by my understanding of this extremity because I was angered by how the conservative movement has prevailed in keeping us all in the brainwashed darkness that we consider society. Aleichia Williams’ piece “Too Latina to be Black, Too Black to be Latina” was also a good read for me. Ultimately through this course, I feel that I am learning so much enlightening information but what is really also getting me is the comprehension of the magnitude of importance to actually KNOW this stuff that so many still have no idea about which is a result of the subliminal conditioning we’ve experienced by the systems in power.