Identity politics is now back with a vengeance at the center of US politics. In the New Hampshire Democratic primary, belying all the polls and media accounts that had Obama ahead by as much as 13 points, Hillary Clinton's unexpected victory opened up the historical antagonism between race and gender that has always haunted US politics.
Speculations in the media among politicians and pundits in the wake of that primary have been discussed here, here, and here.
Identity politics involves the privileging, in political practice, of one of the categories of difference (race, class, gender, and sexual orientation), hierarchy, and discrimination that exists in US culture and society.
However, in this election cycle, Progressives have to be vigilant not to let race and gender short-circuit each other the way that happened in the 1960s. In that decade, the civil rights movement elided gender, while second-wave feminism elided race. In the latter, in the name of universal sisterhood, white feminists elided women of color (in the US and in the third-world), who stood at the nexus of gender and race. In a New York Times article on Sunday, Mark Leibovich implied that the race between Clinton and Obama is zero-sum: one side wins, the other loses. On the contrary, we say it should be nonzero-sum: both sides win. The discourse and debates in this primary and general presidential run should of course engage the issues of gender and race, among other issues, but absolutely should not be defined by them. Progressives need to form tactical and strategic alliances across these categories of difference in order to achieve desired political goals.
In the context of political (and social) movements mobilized for political(and legal) goals in the US, the historical antagonism between race and gender can be traced back to the abolitionist Frederick Douglass and Susan B. Anthony in the 19th century, and not to Douglass and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, as Leibovich claimed in his NY Times article. (Douglass and Stanton knew each other but weren't friends).
In 1869, the long-time friendship between Douglass and Anthony dissolved over the debate preceding the 15th Amendment to the Constitution that gave the vote to black men, but not to women. A highly devoted abolitionist, Anthony questioned why women should support this Amendment when black men did not support women’s voting rights. After the passage of the 15th Amendment in 1870, Anthony devoted her work exclusively to the agitation for women's suffrage. The 19th Amendment in 1920 eventually granted women the right to vote.
In the 1960s, second-wave feminism picked up the relay of the race-gender divide. Betty Friedan's Feminine Mystique; Shulamith Firestone's The Dialectic of Sex; Kate Millett's Sexual Politics; and Gloria Steinem's Ms Magazine: in the name of white middle- and upper-middle-class women, all these seminal texts of second-wave feminism and publication theorized a first-world feminist politics that posited a global sisterhood in the primary struggle against patriarchal oppression, thereby eliding the specific historical, economic, and social conditions of the woman of color in the US and third world who stood at the axis of race and gender. (Third-wave feminism later came to question this global feminist theory.)
(Simone de Beauvoir is often mistakenly credited for launching second-wave feminism. But even in 1949 when she wrote her book, The Second Sex she seemed to have anticipated its limitations. She wrote in the Intro:
But there are deep similarities between the situation of woman and that of the Negro. Both are being emancipated today from a like paternalism, and the former master class wishes to ‘keep them in their place’ – that is, the place chosen for them. In both cases the former masters lavish more or less sincere eulogies, either on the virtues of ‘the good Negro’ with his dormant, childish, merry soul – the submissive Negro – or on the merits of the woman who is ‘truly feminine’ – that is, frivolous, infantile, irresponsible the submissive woman.)
Women (white and black) were mostly absent or marginalized in the civil rights, Black Power, and Black Panther movements. Ironically, in 1955 Rosa Parks came to embody, as it were, the race-gender commonality in the struggle against white patriarchal oppression when she refused to give up her bus seat for a white man, a highly significant event that mobilized and animated the civil rights movement in the 1960s. At that moment in US history, as a woman of color, Rosa Parks occupied that liminal space straddling the sutures of class, race, and gender, a dispersion of subject-positions at conflict with legal institutions, social and state policies, and cultural norms and authority.
And the case of Anita Hill in 1991 exposed the bankruptcy of the race-gender divide in US politics. When Anita Hill accused Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment in the workplace and testified at his Senate confirmation hearing, white and black women mostly rallied around her in the nimbus of a common awareness of gender discrimination and patriarchal hierarchization. And indeed some African-Americans accused her of betraying her race.
Which brings us to the present moment. Again: Progressives need to work across categories of difference to form strategic and tactical alliances to contest and win hegemony by consensus.
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BIODUN!!
go raven.
hi biodun.
Hi folks. Thanks.
Jane:
Thanks so much for inviting me to do this.
Biodun on the front page!!
Congrats!
It’s either MSNBC or AOL that has a poll going on which is the greater taboo: sexism or racism. nice huh?
Hey dems, not gonna do it, wouldn’t be prudent…
Hey Biodun! Congratulations
Huh. Oprah’s black and female, and she chose Obama. Interesting.
Busted and egregious:
Thanks!
Biodun, is this your first headline? you write like a veteran! :)
Hey Biodun- Congrats on the front page! Mucho ase!
I guess this is one of my problems in this whole deal. It would be such a breakthrough for a woman or an African American (or and African American woman)but guess what, it ain’t gonna be Cytnthia McKinney. My point is that almost by definition the person will have to be “middle of the road” to get elected. So, we know that no one really does what they say they are going to do do. We know neither of these candidates are “progressive” enough for most of our tastes but maybe it would be more important to break down one of these barriers.
Well now, lookie who’s on the front page. GO BIODUN!!!
Not my first. But my first at FDL, yes…*g*
Most excellent Biodun!!!
Great to see your name up top!
Great primer Biodun, thanks!
Best strategy for keeping race and gender out of politics would be to support John Edwards, the only real progressive with a chance to win the nomination.
As I told Jane yesterday, this whole thing is in the air. From Gary Kamiya in Salon today:
OK, here’s my two cents just on my own personal biases etc. I’m white and female and I’m backing Edwards.
I want to really really believe it’s because of his stand on the issues. frankly, I didn’t gravitate to his personality right away but the Clinton Machine pushed me over there. I want to like Obama (love love love listening to him) and vote for him, but I do not like his Senate votes. So I am trying to convince myself that I am not ########### “identity politics”. I truly do not know for sure.
I like Dodd too. I will admit to liking a “strong daddy” persona (please don’t flame me), but Dodd deserves my respect and admiration for better reasons than that like his stand against telecom immunity and more.
Just trying to be honest with the Lake and with myself here. since we’re talking about it.
sacre bleu! Biodun “a la une”!
Great piece Biodun - both provocative and thoughtful.
And today of course we have another form of religious/ethnicity identity politics being played out in the Washinton Post and around the blogs, fanned by the column by Cohen claiming anti-Semit*sm. I find it all disgusting, and in the latter case a backlash (or rather foregrounding) of the issue of I* and the US war policy in the M.E. This 3rd rail of identity politics may prove to be the more painful and deeply damaging than the others.
Thanks Richmond, Loo Hoo, DWBartoo, and tw3k…
Merci bien, punaise mon vieux…
Biodun!! Great writing. Thanks for front-paging*g*
And in her NYTimes OP-Ed piece on January 8, Gloria Steinem is still fighting her battle in the 1960s:
MSNBC is trying to inflame this subject even more, in a quite stupid way at that,
Divide and conquer baby.
Hi Laura…
Yay B!
wow!
I can digg it!
*g*
You are right on, Biodun. Excellent food for thought.
like all the barriers Margaret Thatcher broke down for women in the UK.
H. Clinton would be a Thatcherite, DLC, corporate candidate, none too different than a normal country-club republican, before the GOP went batshit insane.
blood she splills in attacks against countries that pose no threat to the USA will be on the consciences of whoever votes for her - a dire risk for those who like to profess that their politics are tinged with morality.
It’s a great article but I dare say I do love your avatar,
frivolously yours,
Elliott
identity politics do not take us to the elision fields.
Nice piece Biodun, thanks and congrat’s.
Thanks…
Elliott - previous thread: sorry, it was a 737
Biodun Thanks for the great post! So much needs to be said about this subject and the campaigns seem to be getting it all wrong. Makes us all (US citizens) look bad. I support Edwards and have for a long time but I felt that Obama would be a great VP and work his way up to prez. I am very disappointed in him so far - he is too vague for me. Hope it will get better as we go along.
I dugg it too!
will be on the consciences of whoever votes for her
I assume that goes for anyone who pays taxes as well?
the theme for tonight’s debate is black and brown issues
giving Williams and Russert an invitation to cause trouble on the race issue. msgop has been stirring up troubble.
http://www.reuters.com/article.....BW20071217
*g*
Biodun,
I have seen several people suggest that because he is a white male, Edwards is more “free” to express the anger that many people have in response to the many atrocities of the Bush years, while Clinton and Obama, because of their “identity issues”, are at much greater risk of backlash from any comments that stray from expected levels of decorum. Do you see a role for thinking along these lines in the negative reactions this week to the dialogue occurring between the Clinton and Obama camps?
Yep. We’ll see how things shake out in the debate tonight. See whether they’ve actually declared that truce…
Biodun! So exciting to see you on the front page.
Hi Busted, did you or anyone catch the Newshour last night? They had on Congressman John Lewis of Georgia who backs HRC and the Reverend Joseph Lowery, co-founder, along with Dr. King, and president emeritus of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Lowery backs Obama.
Lowery did an excellent job, imo, of refusing to take the bait although invited to many times by Lewis. Lewis was not going to put the sword down, but finally did at the end of the interview. Lowery was very kind and generous when saying he would take Hilary’s word when she says she is not race-baiting. He said over and over again that the Democrats need to stick to the issues.
Anyone else have a take on that?
OMG, get a load of this from Huffpo:
Biodun, one more really not so small thing, can you remind us please how to properly pronounce your name. I know I had it wrong originally…
thanks!
Hillary steers clear of explicit gender issues; Obama also avoids taking on race up front. I’m sure they’ve both given some thought to not conforming to stereotypes…
Two experts on Saudi Arabia were basically in agreement that SA is “confused” to put it mildly as to where the US stands vis a vis the ME. Does Bush sound insane in that interview or what? The whole world is eager to be rid of Bush.
And Edwards? Received a half-million salary from the Sub-Prime Lender, Off-Shore shelter corporation called Fortress Investment Group? They are the same corporation which has contributed the most to his Presidential Campaign.
Edwards says he wasn’t aware that Fortress was involved in the Sub-Prime loans made to borrowers who were most vulnerable to interest rate increases, and also opposed off-shore investment tax shelters by voting for legislation opposed to them when he was a Senator. Nevertheless, it seems odd that he would not know precisely what Fortress did? Edwards says that he didn’t actually deal with these aspects of Fortresses portfolio and primarily was involved in helping Fortress “understand the legislative environment”. Hmmm!
Edwards Making His Millions Grow
Good to see you too. There are a few Minnesotans on the thread, to give me some moral support. Some are regular commenters. But they’re lurking on this one…*g*
LOL! Delusion of grandeur or what?
Bee-OH-done…
H. Clinton would be a Thatcherite, DLC, corporate candidate, none too different than a normal country-club republican, before the GOP went batshit insane.
And Edwards? Received a half-million salary from the Sub-Prime Lender, Off-Shore shelter corporation called Fortress Investment Group? They are the same corporation which has contributed the most to his Presidential Campaign.
Edwards says he wasn’t aware that Fortress was involved in the Sub-Prime loans made to borrowers who were most vulnerable to interest rate increases, and also opposed off-shore investment tax shelters by voting for legislation opposed to them when he was a Senator. Nevertheless, it seems odd that he would not know precisely what Fortress did? Edwards says that he didn’t actually deal with these aspects of Fortresses portfolio and primarily was involved in helping Fortress “understand the legislative environment”. Hmmm!
Edwards Making His Millions Grow
Well, this solves the whole thing.
Ich Bein Ein Minnesoter
exactly.
though since it is all debt financed current taxes may pay relatively little directly - but there has been enough killing to make a stain even on the avg taxpayer.
Richmond has always known how to pronounce that name…*g*
Every time I start to feel “ok” about Edwards you speak up. *g
Biodun, thanks for this impressive piece and the reseach reflected init - thans for your work.
Congrats on a great FDL front page debut - you rawk.
And thanks for teaching me a new word: elided
pardon moi, monsieur, mais, mais, I don’t speak German…
We’re talking about moral complicity and I guess we just need to all mosey down to jonestown becuase we are ALL guilty of some shit or another.
Same here, good word.
A totally apt, timely and intelligent posting, thank you.
kirk: You’re most welcome. I enjoyed your book salon. I always lurk at those when I haven’t read the book…
i tend to lurk during the day … so many articulate commenters speak for me that this mere graphic artist doesn’t have much to add. But i’ll certainly stand beside you for moral support *g*
Biodun,
I started writing an essay yesterday about Diane Benson, the Tlingit civil rights activist who ran against Don Young for Congress in Alaska in 2006, and is doing it again. I wanted to concentrate on her civil rights and women’s rights work, but couldn’t quite wrap my mind around it.
Reading your essay helped me re-focus. Thanks!
There has never been a Native American woman in the US Congress.
Very interesting piece, Biodun. I look forward to reading if more carefully when I have time.
Thanks, globalcitizen.
again, I agree - there were some heated threads awhile back after posts by Siun featuring and Iraqui MD who made the claim that all Americans are complicit in the slaughter of her people - and there was some handwringing anout degrees of complcity, etc.
I was on the side of face it, we are all stained. (D) politics not a panacea, far from it.
Yup *g* - from Abiodun “one born in war times” (a name appropriate for our era, and our circumstances too! Biodun, our front pager, is a descendant of famous Yoruba kings.
Biodun, just had a chance to read this. Great post, which should be required reading for everyone in both the Clinton and Obama campaigns. Congrats on being front page, and also for such a well-reasoned, well-written post.
me neither, and I don’t particularly care for jelly donuts
Yea, it’s a bitch ain’t it? I am totally convinced that any of the dems, but Hil in particular, will be forced to attack the first “target of opportunity” if they get elected.
You’re welcome. Glad to have been of help…You do compose on many platforms.
Biodun on the front page!!
Congrats!
ditto!!
Now to read…
Totally OT–
Actually, Abiodun means born into the New Year, or born on Christmas Day or Ramadan. It’s a unisexual name given to anyone born on those days. (I was born on New Year’s Day.)
My hope is for someone who can extract us from Iraq. So far of the two, the Senator seems the least likely to do so, and may perhaps not even want to.
Thanks, Fern.
1,727 DAYZ AND THE KILLIN’ GOEZ ON AND ON AND…
Citizen Biodun and the Firepup Freedom Fighters:
Great post as far as it goes, but I think you miss something very basic in the analysis as it relates to the current campaign and that is playing off of race and gender against each other to structurally weaken the Democratic Party base by splintering two of the 3 largest groups in the Democratic coalition. Mrs. Clinton and Barak O’Lieberman are both owned by the same economic interests and no matter the extent that they have any control over the actions over their own campaigns, they certainly are aware of the effects of those tactics on politics at large.
That said, I firmly believe that at this moment the playing of gender against race has opened space for Edwards and the only way he can take advantage of it is to use the next debate to elevate himself above the tactics and declare that this conflict makes both Clinton and O’Lieberman unfit to govern. The great majority of folks out here including women and blacks are more interested in issues of the war, health care and the economy than race horse demographic battles…if Edwards can’t take advantage of this opportunity and either Mrs. Clinton or O’Lieberman is nominated, the Democratic Party is dead.
KEEP THE FAITH AND PASS THE AMMUNITION, THE WAR HAS COME HOME TO US NOW!!
B,
I like what you said at the end
“Progressives need to work across categories of difference to form strategic and tactical alliances to contest and win hegemony by consensus.”
can you elaborate a little more perhaps?
I missed it, but John Lewis is a true hero. It would be hard for me to believe that he b adobpted in position based on shallow self interest or political maneuvering.
I’m here, Biodun - just arrived! Congrats on the front-pager and the excellent thought-provoking post!
Kathie in MN
Sending support from North Dakota. Just a few blocks to the Minnesota border. I consider it my political home because of its blue hue.
Correction: …that he adopted any position based on shallow…
Gee, Thanks!
Yes, congratulations, Biodun. I had noticed that your comments were always well informed and thoughtful.
1,727 DAYZ AND THE KILLIN’ GOEZ ON AND ON AND..
Didn’t know you are a Gopher…I’m born and bred but now live in cheesland on the edge of the St. Criox Valley. Minnesota politics is gettin’ interestin again ain’t it…ya think that the tactics of the 3rd party splinter has finally caught up with the fascists in Minnesota?
KEEP THE FAITH AND DON’T LET THE BASTARDS INTO YER YARD!!
Disclosure: I’m an Edwards supporter…I agree with most of what you said.
Raven and sporkovat, great in-thread conversation. Needs broader consideration amongst denizens of the lake.
Biden’s wife involved in an accident on I-95…doesn’t sound good…
OMG! that can’t be, not twice for the Bidens…
I don’t think Angela Davis would appreciate what Biodun said about black women being absent or marginalized in the Black Power and Black Panther movements.
According to Antonio Gramsci, hegemony has to be won from the bottom up by consensus: everything has to be constantly contested and negotiated, and the outcome of any political action is never taken for granted or guaranteed. People have to mobilize across differences to achieve common political (and sometimes legal) goals.
Minor injuries, reportedly.
Hi Kathie…
“According to police Senator Joe Biden’s wife was involved in a car accident on I-95 Tuesday morning.
Biden’s wife was treated for minor injuries and released. She is now recovering at home.
The accident caused a major delay on 95 just before 10 a.m.
Stay tuned to CBS3.com for updates on this developing story.”
Way to go, Biodun! from this weekend Minnesotan.
And cinnamonape, sometimes you have to go into the belly of the beast to understand it…and tame it.
Interesting to hear today McCain in Michigan with its Moslem demographic talkin’ “Judeo-Christian values….”
Go, Edwards! And go to his website, pups, and help the 1/18 fundraising campaign.
Biodun!!!! Congrats!! Bravo!!!
I know. It was so odd. one wanted to keep fighting and defending their candidate and the other was so over it and said “let’s move on, together” in so many words. I even had trouble keeping track of which candidate Lowery was for because he was being such a peacemaker. here’s a link to the transcript. Lewis had a tone of controlled anger and Lowery was conciliatory and open. it was interesting to observe. http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb.....01-14.html
I support neither Clinton nor Obama, but I recognize that either would be infinitely preferable to any of the current crop of Republican troglodytes. I am not interested in their race or gender and I wish they and the press would back off of it. I am more interested in what they are going to do about the Iraq war, the economy, upholding the rights and protections guaranteed in the Constitution, and healthcare.
Thanks for the link. MSNBC made it sound ominous.
apt
OK, she was the exception. This fact of marginalization has been widely discussed and written about. For starters, read Michelle Wallace’s Black Macho and the Myth of the Superwoman
I think this is sort of on topic for this post:
http://primebuzz.kcstar.com/?q=node
apologies if this is a repeat…
Two things:
1) Very informative post Biodun ;-) I’ve gotta go back and read this thoroughly
2) I listened to the interview, dosido (listened to KQED’s simulcast - was out running errands) John Lewis sounded like he wanted to get in the gutter and that he wanted to drag Rev Lowery in with him, but the Rev. wouldn’t get down with him, and instead took the high road
Hi. Thanks.
FWIW, Shirley Chisolm (though I can’t find a source) once remarked that she felt more hampered by her sex than by her race. Ok, found this:
1,727 DAYZ AND THE KILLIN’ GOEZ ON AND ON AND…
Citizens Raven and Sporkovat:
Yes indeed, we are all complicit in our own unresolved history, aren’t we? The blood of generations stains our hands and the terribly dark shadow of the political economy of slavery and an unresolved civil war hangs over us and will not let us see the light of our humanity until we resolve it…the war is home now and it ain’t goin’ away.
KEEP THE FAITH, IF WE DON’T WIN THIS ONE NOTHIN’ ELSE WILL MEAN ANYTHIN’!!!
If Hillary Clinton is nominated, I’ll damned sure vote for her. I’ll accept full responsibility for that. Everyone here is old enough and concerned enough to consider the issues. Enough with the silly hexes and curses.
YES!