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115-491: The Collective is perhaps best known for developing the Combahee River Collective Statement , a key document in the history of contemporary Black feminism and the development of the concepts of identity politics as used among political organizers and social theorists, and for introducing the concept of interlocking systems of oppression, including but not limited to gender, race, and sexuality,

230-643: A "Euro-American radical right" would promote a trans-national white identity politics, which would invoke populist grievance narratives and encourage hostility against non-white peoples and multiculturalism . In the United States, mainstream news has identified Donald Trump 's presidency as a signal of increasing and widespread utilization of white identity politics within the Republican Party and political landscape. Journalists Michael Scherer and David Smith have reported on its development since

345-572: A "simultaneity of oppressions", refusing to rank oppressions based on race, class and gender. According to author and academic Angela Davis , this analysis drew on earlier Black Marxist and Black Nationalist movements, and was anti-racist and anti-capitalist in nature. In Roderick Ferguson 's book Aberrations in Black, the Combahee River Collective Statement is cited as "rearticulating coalition to address gender, racial, and sexual dominance as part of capitalist expansion globally". Ferguson uses

460-564: A Way of Life: White Antiracist Activism , the Boston Police Department and the media "attempted to dismiss the murders...based on the notion that (the women) were alleged to be prostitutes and therefore not worthy of protection or investigation." In a 1979 journal entry, Barbara Smith wrote: That winter and spring were a time of great demoralization, anger, sadness and fear for many Black women in Boston, including myself. It

575-464: A feeling of creating something which had not existed previously. Demita Frazier described the CRC's beginnings as "not a mix cake", meaning that the women involved had to create the meaning and purpose of the group "from scratch." In her 1995 essay "Doing it from Scratch: The Challenge of Black Lesbian Organizing", which borrows its title from Frazier's statement, Barbara Smith describes the early activities of

690-416: A form of Māori identity politics, directly oppositional to Pākehā (white New Zealanders), has helped provide a "basis for internal collaboration and a politics of strength". A 2009, Ministry of Social Development journal identified Māori identity politics, and societal reactions to it, as the most prominent factor behind significant changes in self-identification from the 2006 New Zealand census. Since

805-421: A fundamental concept of intersectionality . Gerald Izenberg credits the 1977 Combahee statement with the first usage of the phrase "identity politics". Through writing its statement, the CRC connected themselves to the activist tradition of Black women in the 19th century and to the struggles of Black liberation in the 1960s. The document embarked upon the separation of a gender-only focused feminism and highlighted

920-601: A goal of the retreats as to "institutionalize Black feminism" and develop "an ideological separation from white feminism", as well as to discuss "the limitations of white feminists' fixation 'on the primacy of gender as an oppression.'" The first "Black feminist retreat" was held in July 1977 in South Hadley, Massachusetts, at the home of Jean Grossholtz , a lesbian feminist activist and professor of politics at Mount Holyoke with whom Barbara Smith had remained close. Its purpose

1035-908: A group that fights for them directly. The Black feminist movement emphasized the importance of Black women defining and representing themselves, challenging dominant narratives and stereotypes. It called for autonomy in shaping their own agendas and strategies for activism. Identity politics Identity politics is politics based on a particular identity, such as ethnicity , race , nationality , religion , denomination , gender , sexual orientation , social background , caste , and social class . The term encompasses various often- populist political phenomena and rhetoric, such as governmental migration policies that regulate mobility and opportunity based on identities, left-wing agendas involving intersectional politics or class reductionism , and right-wing nationalist agendas of exclusion of national or ethnic "others." The term identity politics dates to

1150-437: A healthy love for ourselves, our sisters and our community which allows us to continue our struggle and work. This focusing upon our own oppression is embodied in the concept of identity politics. We believe that the most profound and potentially most radical politics come directly out of our own identity, as opposed to working to end somebody else's oppression. Identity politics, as a mode of categorizing, are closely connected to

1265-552: A liberating feminist practice alongside the ascendence of a predominantly white feminist movement, and a Black nationalist vision of women deferring to Black male leadership. Grant believes the CRC was most important in the "emergence of coalition politics in the late 1970s and early 1980s...which demonstrated the key roles that progressive feminists of color can play" in bridging gaps "between diverse constituencies, while also creating new possibilities for change within deeply divided communities..." She notes that, in addition to penning

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1380-404: A lot of attention from all sides of the political sphere. A counter movement formed the hashtag, # AllLivesMatter , in response to # BlackLivesMatter . See also: White identity , White nationalism , White supremacy , White defensiveness , White backlash , and Identitarian movement In 1998, political scientists Jeffrey Kaplan and Leonard Weinberg predicted that, by the late 20th-century,

1495-512: A majority and minority group phenomenon, racial identity politics can develop as a reaction to the historical legacy of race-based oppression of a people as well as a general group identity issue, as "racial identity politics utilizes racial consciousness or the group's collective memory and experiences as the essential framework for interpreting the actions and interests of all other social groups." Carol M. Swain has argued that non-white ethnic pride and an "emphasis on racial identity politics"

1610-531: A majority felt Muslims are "scattered improperly"; an analyst for IFOP said the results indicated something "beyond linking immigration with security or immigration with unemployment, to linking Islam with a threat to identity". Gender identity politics is an approach that views politics, both in practice and as an academic discipline, as having a gendered nature and that gender is an identity that influences how people think. Politics has become increasingly gender political as formal structures and informal 'rules of

1725-556: A monolithic Muslim identity. The construction of British Muslim identity politics is marked with Islamophobia ; Jonathan Brit suggests that political hostility toward the Muslim "other" and the reification of an overarching identity that obscures and denies cross-cutting collective identities or existential individuality are charges made against an assertive Muslim identity politics in Britain. In addition, because Muslim identity politics

1840-509: A more equal society. In the United States, identity politics is usually ascribed to these oppressed minority groups who are fighting discrimination. In Canada and Spain, identity politics has been used to describe separatist movements; in Africa, Asia, and eastern Europe, it has described violent nationalist and ethnic conflicts. Overall, in Europe, identity politics are exclusionary and based on

1955-429: A pamphlet on the topic, articulating the need "to look at these murders as both racist and sexist crimes" and emphasizing the need to "talk about violence against women in the Black community." The pamphlet was initially titled “6 Black Women Why Did They Die”, however, the number of Black women who were murdered continued to rise. The number 6 was crossed out and replaced with 7, and eventually replaced with 8, illustrating

2070-584: A particular commitment to "working on those struggles in which race, sex, and class are simultaneous factors in oppression..." The CRC sought to "build a politics that will change our lives and inevitably end our oppression." Black women's liberation seeks to dismantle these intersecting systems of oppression and create a more equitable society; seeking to empower Black women to reclaim their agency and assert their rights, autonomy, and self-determination. It envisions broader social transformation that benefits not only Black women but also their communities and society as

2185-498: A particular meaning in relation to the national and cultural identities of the citizens of non-Arab countries, such as Turkey and Iran . In their 2010 Being Arab: Arabism and the Politics of Recognition , academics Christopher Wise and Paul James challenged the view that, in the post- Afghanistan and Iraq invasion era, Arab identity-driven politics were ending. Refuting the view that had "drawn many analysts to conclude that

2300-411: A redistribution within existing structures and relations of production that does not challenge the status quo. Instead, Fraser argued, identitarian deconstruction, rather than affirmation, is more conducive to leftist goals of economic redistribution. Similarly, Marxist academics such as Kurzwelly, Pérez and Spiegel, writing for Dialectical Anthropology , argue that because the term " identity politics "

2415-403: A reemergent Arab identity in the region. Najla Said has explored her lifelong experience with Arab identity politics in her book Looking for Palestine . In the political realm of the United States, according to Jane Junn and Natalie Masuoka, the possibilities which exist for an Asian American vote are built upon the assumption that those Americans who are broadly categorized as Asians share

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2530-529: A reformation to meet the needs for those significantly oppressed; and by doing this it would liberate everyone. This was not an academic exercise, rather the CRC sought to create a mechanism for Black women to engage in politics. The catalyst for this engagement were the failures of organizations like the NBFO to successfully address the oppression Black women faced on issues like sterilization, sexual assault, labor rights, and workplace rights. This alienation as well as

2645-735: A role in electoral politics, government jobs and affirmative actions , development projects. Due to somewhat competing tribe-based versus pan-Māori concepts, there is both an internal and external utilization of Māori identity politics in New Zealand . Projected outwards, Māori identity politics has been a disrupting force in the politics of New Zealand and post-colonial conceptions of nationhood. Its development has also been explored as causing parallel ethnic identity developments in non-Māori populations. Academic Alison Jones , in her co-written Tuai: A Traveller in Two Worlds , suggests that

2760-410: A sense of racial identity, and this group consciousness has political consequences. However, the belief in the existence of a monolithic Asian American bloc has been challenged because populations are diverse in terms of national origin and language—no one group is predominant—and scholars suggest that these many diverse groups favor groups which share their distinctive national origin over any belief in

2875-646: A strong supporter of liberal conceptions of civil rights , argues that a liberal democracy requires a common basis for culture and society to function. Rather than seeing civil society as already fractured along lines of power and powerlessness (according to race, ethnicity, sexuality, etc.), Schlesinger suggests that basing politics on group marginalization is itself what fractures the civil polity, and that identity politics therefore works against creating real opportunities for ending marginalization. Schlesinger believes that "movements for civil rights should aim toward full acceptance and integration of marginalized groups into

2990-667: A then-record- breaking fourteen women ran for governor or U.S. senator, four of whom were successfully elected into office. In analyzing the possibility that male and female voters react differently to the opportunity to cast a vote for a woman, the study provided lent support to the idea that women tend to vote for women and men tend to vote against them. For example, among Republican voters in California, Barbara Boxer ran 10 points behind Bill Clinton among men and about even among women, while Dianne Feinstein ran about 6 points among men but 11 points ahead among women. This gender effect

3105-464: A white feminist perspective that the politics of Black women had to be comprehended by broader feminist movements in the understanding that the different forms of oppression that Black women face (via race and gender) are interconnected, presenting a compound of oppression ( Intersectionality ). A contemporary example of Black identity politics is # BlackLivesMatter which began with a hashtag. In 2013, Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors and Opal Tometi created

3220-569: A whole and challenge societal expectations, stereotypes, and constraints that limit Black women's choices, opportunities, and overall well-being. Black feminism is a feminist movement that focuses on Black women and their rights. The Black feminist movement addresses Black women's unique experience of discrimination and oppression. Often, the feminist movement focuses on white, upper-class women and does not include other races, ethnicities, sexualities, economic classes, and other axes of oppression. The Black feminist movement gives Black women support and

3335-573: Is a “sinister authoritarian plot” to disarm law abiding citizens. According to an article published by Southern Poverty Law Group, Proud Boys members are regularly affiliated with white nationalist extremists and are known for sharing white nationalist content across social media platforms. Another contemporary example is the hashtag movement # AllLivesMatter . # AllLivesMatter began as a counter narrative to # BlackLivesMatter . People who identify with this countermovement use this hashtag to represent what they call “anti-identity” identity politics, which

3450-513: Is an extremely difficult journey for Black women, but their desires are relatively simple, namely to be accepted and included. Black women don't want any special rights, they only want to be accepted and acknowledged at the same level as all other humans and citizens of society. This chapter traces the problems and failures of organizing around Black feminism. The CRC believed that the fact that they were fighting to end multiple forms of oppression simultaneously, rather than just one form of oppression,

3565-419: Is defined differently based on a given author's or activist's ideological position, it is analytically imprecise. The same authors argue in another article that identity politics often leads to reproduction and reification of essentialist notions of identity, which they view are inherently erroneous. The Oxford English Dictionary traces the phrase "identity politics" to 1973. Mark Mazower writes of

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3680-636: Is fomenting the rise of white nationalism . Anthropologist Michael Messner has suggested that the Million Man March was an example of racial identity politics in the United States. Arab identity politics concerns the form of identity-based politics which is derived from the racial or ethnocultural consciousness of the Arabs . In the regionalism of the Arab world and the Middle East , it has

3795-464: Is referred to as "among the most compelling documents produced by Black feminists", and Harriet Sigerman, author of The Columbia Documentary History of American Women Since 1941 , calls the solutions which the statement proposes to societal problems such as racial and sexual discrimination, homophobia and classist politics "multifaceted and interconnected." In their Encyclopedia of Government and Politics , M. E. Hawkesworth and Maurice Kogan refer to

3910-632: Is seen as internally/externally divisive and therefore counterproductive, as well as the result of manipulation by religious conservatives and local/national politicians, the progressive policies of the anti-racist left have been outflanked. Brit sees the segmentation that divided British Muslims amongst themselves and with the anti-racist alliance in Britain as a consequence of patriarchal, conservative mosque-centered leadership. A Le Monde / IFOP poll in January 2011 conducted in France and Germany found that

4025-418: Is supposed to symbolize a movement against racial identities, but they've been criticized as being a white nationalist movement. Created, adopted and circulated beginning in 2016, # WhiteLivesMatter exalted themselves as an anti-racist movement, while identifying # BlackLivesMatter as the opposite. Columnist Ross Douthat has argued that white identity politics have been important to American politics since

4140-706: Is that of African-American homosexual women , who can constitute a particular hyper-specific identity class. Criticism of identity politics often comes from either the center-right or the far-left on the political spectrum. In addition, some activists who promote intersectionality, such as Kimberlé Crenshaw , criticize narrower forms of identity politics that overemphasise inter-group differences and ignore intra-group differences and forms of perceived oppression. Many socialists , anarchists and Marxists have criticized identity politics for its divisive nature, claiming that it forms identities that can undermine their goals of proletariat unity and class struggle . On

4255-421: Is that they fight against a range of forms of oppression, unlike white feminism and the broader civil rights movement, each of which fight against one form of oppression. In the encyclopedia Lesbian Histories and Cultures , contributing editor Jaime M. Grant contextualizes the CRC's work in the political trends of the time. The collective came together at a time when many of its members were struggling to define

4370-458: Is the only military campaign in American history planned and led by a woman. The Combahee River Collective Statement was developed by a "collective of Black feminists...involved in the process of defining and clarifying our politics, while...doing political work within our own group and in coalition with other progressive organizations and movements..." Members of the collective describe having

4485-438: Is the only thing that grants authority to speak on these topics; that, "If I didn't define myself for myself, I would be crunched into other people's fantasies for me and eaten alive." The term identity politics has been applied retroactively to varying movements that long predate its coinage. Historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr. discussed identity politics extensively in his 1991 book The Disuniting of America . Schlesinger,

4600-494: Is the privilege of whiteness, which is the identity that pretends not to have an identity, that denies how it is tied to capitalism, to race, and to war". According to Leonie Huddy, Lilliana Mason, and S. Nechama Horwitz, the majority of Latinos in the United States identity with the Democratic Party. Latinos' Democratic proclivities can be explained by: ideological policy preferences and an expressive identity based on

4715-426: Is used "as a tool to frame political claims, promote political ideologies, or stimulate and orient social and political action, usually in a larger context of inequality or injustice and with the aim of asserting group distinctiveness and belonging and gaining power and recognition." The term identity politics may have been used in political discourse since at least the 1970s. The first known written appearance of

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4830-595: The Combahee River Collective (CRC) argued that Black women struggled with facing their oppression due to the sexism present within the Civil Rights Movement and the racism present within second-wave feminism . The CRC coined the term "identity politics", and in their opinion, naming the unique struggle and oppression Black women faced, aided Black women in the U.S. within radical movements and at large. The term "identity politics", in

4945-658: The Richard Nixon -era of the Republican Party. Historian Nell Irvin Painter has analyzed Eric Kaufmann 's thesis that the phenomenon of white identity politics is caused by immigration-derived racial diversity , which reduces the white majority, and an "anti-majority adversary culture". Writing in Vox , political commentator Ezra Klein believes that demographic change has fueled the emergence of white identity politics. Viet Thanh Nguyen says that "to have no identity at all

5060-484: The initialism LGBT , or " queer " as a counterculture shorthand for LGBT, did not gain much acceptance as an umbrella term until much later in the 1980s, and in some areas not until the '90s or even '00s. During this period in the United States, identity politics were largely seen in these communities in the definitions espoused by writers such as self-identified, "black, dyke, feminist, poet, mother" Audre Lorde 's view , that lived experience matters, defines us, and

5175-471: The 1970s were the peak of "gay liberation" in New York City and other urban areas in the United States, "gay liberation" was the term still used instead of "gay pride" in more oppressive areas into the mid-1980s, with some organizations opting for the more inclusive "lesbian and gay liberation". Women and transgender activists had lobbied for more inclusive names from the beginning of the movement, but

5290-524: The 1970s, the interaction of religion and politics has been associated with the rise of Islamist movements in the Middle East. Salwa Ismail posits that the Muslim identity is related to social dimensions such as gender, class, and lifestyles ( Intersectionality ), thus, different Muslims occupy different social positions in relation to the processes of globalization. Not all uniformly engage in the construction of Muslim identity, and they do not all apply to

5405-631: The 19th century, during the Second Party System (1830s–1850s) as well as the Third Party System (1850s–1890s). Racial identity has been the central theme in Southern politics since slavery was abolished . Similar patterns which have appeared in the 21st century are commonly referenced in popular culture, and are increasingly analyzed in media and social commentary as an interconnected part of politics and society. Both

5520-405: The CRC had started to publicly address the racism inherent in the white women's movement. The CRC believed that white women involved in the feminist movement had made little effort to combat or understand their own racism. Moreover, the CRC believed that these women must have "a more than superficial comprehension of race, color, and Black history and culture. While the CRC acknowledged that this work

5635-499: The CRC saw themselves as being at the bottom of the social hierarchy. Members of the organization suggests that the existence of being a black women in this world, they were already damaged people. They looked into Michele Wallace 's "A Black Feminist's Search for Sisterhood," addressing classic isolation Black feminists face. Because of this positioning, the CRC wrote that, "if Black women were free, it would mean that everyone else would have to be free since our freedom would necessitate

5750-535: The CRC statement affirms that the CRC was committed to improving the lives of all women, third world, and working people. The CRC stated, "We are of course particularly committed to working on those struggles in which race, sex, and class are simultaneous factors in oppression." The chapter details how this may apply in many ways around the world. Its members have worked on many projects dealing with abortion rights, abuse of sterilization, health care, physical and sexual violence against women. This chapter also details how

5865-476: The CRC statement traces the origin and trajectory of Black feminism. It situates the CRC within the larger Black feminist movement. The CRC presented itself as rooted in the historical activism of Sojourner Truth , Harriet Tubman , Frances E. W. Harper , Ida B. Wells Barnett , and Mary Church Terrell , as well as many unknown activists "who have a shared awareness of how their sexual identity combined with their racial identity to make their whole life situation and

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5980-453: The CRCS as "what is often seen as the definitive statement regarding the importance of identity politics , particularly for people whose identity is marked by multiple interlocking oppressions ". Smith and the CRC have been credited with coining the term identity politics , which they defined as "a politics that grew out of our objective material experiences as Black women." In her essay "From

6095-495: The Collective argued that they experience oppression based on race, gender, and class. Further, because many of the women were lesbians, they also acknowledged oppression based on sexuality as well. The Collective states its basis and active goals as "committed to struggling against racial, sexual, heterosexual and class oppression" and describes its particular task as the "development of integrated analysis and practice based upon

6210-668: The Kennedy Commission to the Combahee Collective: Black Feminist Organizing, 1960–1980", Duchess Harris credits the "polyvocal political expressions of the Black feminists in the Combahee River Collective (with) defin(ing) the nature of identity politics in the 1980s and 1990s, and challeng(ing) earlier 'essentialist' appeals and doctrines..." The Collective developed a multidimensional analysis recognizing

6325-404: The NBFO", and as a result, the group chose to strike out on its own as the Combahee River Collective. Members of the CRC, notably Barbara Smith and Demita Frazier , felt it was critical that the organization address the needs of Black lesbians, in addition to organizing on behalf of Black feminists. The Collective's name was suggested by Smith, who owned a book called Harriet Tubman, Conductor on

6440-803: The September 1979 issue titled I Am a Lesbian by Chirlane McCray , who was a Combahee member...The seventh retreat was held in Washington, D.C., in Feb. 1980." The final statement was based on this collective discussion, and drafted by African-American activists Barbara Smith , Demita Frazier and Beverly Smith . The Combahee River Collective Statement was separated into four chapters: The Genesis of Contemporary Black Feminism; What We Believe; Problems in Organizing Black Feminists; and Black Feminist Issues and Projects. This chapter of

6555-680: The Underground Railroad by Earl Conrad . She "wanted to name the collective after a historical event that was meaningful to African American women." Smith noted: "It was a way of talking about ourselves being on a continuum of Black struggle, of Black women's struggle." The name commemorated a military operation at the Combahee River planned and led by Harriet Tubman on June 2, 1863, in the Port Royal region of South Carolina. The action freed more than 750 slaves, and it

6670-536: The United States are uniquely American constructs that Asian American immigrants may not adhere to upon entry to the United States. Junn and Masuoka find that in comparison to blacks, the Asian American identity is more latent, and racial group consciousness is more susceptible to the surrounding context. Black feminist identity politics are the identity-based politics derived from the lived experiences of struggles and oppression faced by Black women. In 1977,

6785-504: The United States were forming more visible communities, and this was reflected in the political strategies of American homophile groups. Frank Kameny , an American astronomer and gay rights activist, had co-founded the Mattachine Society of Washington in 1961. While the society did not take much political activism to the streets at first, Kameny and several members attended the 1963 March on Washington , where having seen

6900-824: The articulation of simultaneity of oppressions to describe coalition building that exists outside the organizations of the nation-state. The Combahee River Collective argued that various oppressions such as racism, sexism, heteronormativity, and classism are interrelated and must be addressed as a whole. They also believed that Black feminism was the logical political movement to fight against these simultaneous oppressions. According to them, as Black lesbians, their oppression could not be singularly categorized into racism, sexism or homophobia. The Combahee River Collective mentions that "We also often find it difficult to separate race from class from sex oppression because in our lives they are most often experienced simultaneously". The CRC Statement argues that one problem in organizing Black feminists

7015-480: The ascription that some social groups are oppressed (such as women, ethnic minorities , and sexual minorities ); that is, the idea that individuals belonging to those groups are, by virtue of their identity, more vulnerable to forms of oppression such as cultural imperialism , violence , exploitation of labour , marginalization , or subjugation. Therefore, these lines of social difference can be seen as ways to gain empowerment or avenues through which to work towards

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7130-412: The collective as " consciousness raising and political work on a multitude of issues", along with the building of "friendship networks, community and a rich Black women's culture where none had existed before." The CRC sought to address the failures of organizations like the NBFO and build a collective statement to enable the analysis of capitalism's oppression of Black women, coming to the conclusion for

7245-473: The collective began the groundwork for the organization, believing that they were in need of more radical views in order to better address issues. In her 2001 essay "From the Kennedy Commission to the Combahee Collective", historian and African American Studies professor Duchess Harris states that, in 1974 the Boston collective "observed that their vision for social change was more radical than

7360-438: The collective benefit of all people, not for the benefit of profit. To this end, the CRC was in agreement with Marx's theory as it was applied to the material economic relationships he analyzed. The CRC did not advocate for lesbian separatism as they felt it left out others who were valuable to the movement. They explain that black women and their interests have been disregarded from the contemporaneous feminist movement that

7475-584: The defense of Latino identity and status, with a strong support for the latter explanation hinged on an analysis of the 2012 Latino Immigrant National Election Study and American National Election Study focused on Latino immigrants and citizens respectively. When perceiving pervasive discrimination against Latinos and animosity from the Republican party, a strong partisanship preference further intensified, and in return, increased Latino political campaign engagement. In India, caste, religion, tribe, ethnicity play

7590-558: The destruction of all the systems of oppression." Its belief in this statement also relies on its previous contention that the liberation of all peoples will be delivered with the destruction of capitalism, imperialism, and patriarchy. The CRC's focus on the liberation of Black women also led to negative reactions by Black men. The CRC believed that because of this focus, Black men felt that "they might also be forced to change their habitually sexist ways of interacting with and oppressing Black women." The chapter concludes by discussing some of

7705-649: The differences." Alexis De Veaux Alexis De Veaux (sometimes as Alexis DeVeaux ) (born September 24, 1948) is an American writer and illustrator. She chaired the Department of Women's Studies , at the State University of New York at Buffalo . She was born on September 24, 1948, in Harlem , New York City. In 1976, De Veaux received her BA from Empire State College , State University of New York (SUNY). De Veaux received her MA and PhD from

7820-628: The domination of the Black liberation movement by Black men, led members of the CRC to reimagine a politics that engaged these issues. Throughout the mid-1970s members of the Combahee River Collective met weekly at the Women's Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The Collective held retreats throughout the Northeast between 1977 and 1979 to discuss issues of concern to Black feminists. Author Alexis De Veaux , biographer of poet Audre Lorde , describes

7935-801: The emergence of social activism , manifesting in various dialogues within the feminist , American civil-rights , and LGBT movements, as well as within multiple nationalist and postcolonial organizations. In academic usage, the term identity politics refers to a wide range of political activities and theoretical analyses rooted in experiences of injustice shared by different, often excluded social groups. In this context, identity politics aims to reclaim greater self-determination and political freedom for marginalized peoples through understanding particular paradigms and lifestyle factors, and challenging externally-imposed characterizations and limitations, instead of organizing solely around status quo belief-systems or traditional party-affiliations. Identity

8050-506: The era of Arab identity politics has passed", Wise and James examined its development as a viable alternative to Islamic fundamentalism in the Arab world. According to Marc Lynch , the post- Arab Spring era has seen increasing Arab identity politics, which is "marked by state-state rivalries as well as state-society conflicts". Lynch believes this is creating a new Arab Cold War , no longer characterized by Sunni-Shia sectarian divides but by

8165-399: The existence of a pan-ethnic racial identity . According to the 2000 Census, more than six national origin groups are classified collectively as Asian American, and these include: Chinese (23%), Filipino (18%), Asian Indian (17%), Vietnamese (11%), Korean (11%), and Japanese (8%), along with an "other Asian" category (12%). In addition, the definitions which are applied to racial categories in

8280-651: The experiences of those they view as facing systemic oppression so that society can better understand the interplay of different forms of demographic-based oppression and ensure that no one group is disproportionately affected by political actions. Contemporary identity labels —such as people of specific race, ethnicity, sex, gender identity , sexual orientation , age, economic class, disability status, education, religion, language, profession, political party, veteran status, recovery status, or geographic location—are not mutually exclusive but are, in many cases, compounded into one when describing hyper-specific groups. An example

8395-436: The fact that he still has significant support from liberal and moderate Republicans—who are more favorable toward immigration and the legalization of undocumented immigrants—but believes that it could become a bigger issue as whites become a minority and assert their rights like other minority groups. Salam also states that an increase in "white identity" politics is far from certain given the very high rates of intermarriage and

8510-436: The fact that the major systems of oppression are interlocking. The synthesis of these oppressions creates the conditions of our lives." This chapter of the CRC statement details what is identity politics and how it functions. The CRC's meaning of the term is that Black women had a right to formulate their own agenda based on the material conditions they faced as a result of race, class, gender, and sexuality. We realize that

8625-425: The failure of mainstream White feminist groups to respond to the racism that Black women faced in the United States. The organization sought to challenge the exclusion of Black women from mainstream feminist discourse and activism, which often prioritized the concerns and experiences of white women. It aimed to create a space where Black women's voices, perspectives, and issues could be centered and addressed. Members of

8740-529: The focus of their political struggles unique." The CRC framed contemporary Black feminism as a genesis built upon the work of these activists. The Black feminist presence in the larger second wave American feminist movement resulted in the formation of separate Black feminist groups such as the National Black Feminist Organization as the needs of Black feminists were not met by mainstream organizations. The CRC also stated that it

8855-456: The game' have become gendered. How institutions affect men and women differently are starting to be analysed in more depth as gender will affect institutional innovation. A key element of studying electoral behavior in all democracies is political partisanship . In 1996, Eric Plutzer and John F. Zipp examined the election of 1992 election, also commonly referred to as " Year of the Woman ", where

8970-576: The hashtag in response to the acquittal of George Zimmerman , the man who killed Trayvon Martin in 2012.   Michael Brown and Eric Garner were killed by police in 2014, which propelled the # BlackLivesMatter movement forward, first nationally, and then globally. The intention of # BlackLivesMatter was to create more widespread awareness of the way law enforcement engages with the black community and individuals, including claims of excessive force and issues with accountability within law enforcement agencies. The hashtag and proceeding movement garnered

9085-478: The historical example of the once Anglo-Protestant cultural majority embracing a more inclusive white cultural majority which included Jews, Italians, Poles, Arabs, and Irish. A contemporary example of "White identity politics" is the right-wing group Proud Boys . Proud Boys was formed by Gavin McInnes in 2016. Members are males who identify as right-wing conservatives. They take part in political protests with

9200-410: The idea that all Black women are intrinsically important, that their independence is necessary, and that they must share equal value and recognition with others. Ultimately, the entire purpose of the important anti-discrimination movement is inclusion rather than differentiation or exclusion, and it is the only way through which Black women can effectively tackle oppression and destroy it from its core. It

9315-453: The idea that the silent majority needs to be protected from globalization and immigration . During the 1980s, the politics of identity became very prominent and it was also linked to a new wave of social movement activism. Social movements have a significant influence on the law through statutory and constitutional evolution according to William Eskridge . Ethnic, religious and racial identity politics dominated American politics in

9430-529: The late 20th century: "In general, political activism increasingly revolved ... around issues of 'identity.' At some point in the 1970s this term was borrowed from social psychology and applied with abandon to societies, nations and groups." During the late 1970s, increasing numbers of women—namely Jewish women, women of color, and lesbians—criticized the assumption of a common "woman's experience" irrespective of unique differences in race, ethnicity, class, sexuality, and culture. The term identity politics

9545-426: The late twentieth century, although it had precursors in the writings of individuals such as Mary Wollstonecraft and Frantz Fanon . Many contemporary advocates of identity politics take an intersectional perspective , which they argue accounts for a range of interacting systems of oppression that may affect a person's life and originate from their various identities. To these advocates, identity politics helps center

9660-510: The mainstream culture, rather than … perpetuating that marginalization through affirmations of difference." Similarly in the United Kingdom, author Owen Jones argues that identity politics often marginalize the working class , saying: In the 1950s and 1960s, left-wing intellectuals who were both inspired and informed by a powerful labour movement wrote hundreds of books and articles on working-class issues. Such work would help shape

9775-422: The methods used by Black civil rights activists , they then applied them to the homophile movement . Kameny had also been inspired by the black power movements slogan " Black is Beautiful ", coining his own term "Gay is Good". The gay liberation movement of the late-1960s urged lesbians and gay men to engage in radical direct action , and to counter societal shame with gay pride . In the feminist spirit of

9890-438: The mid-2010s. Ron Brownstein believed that President Trump uses "White Identity Politics" to bolster his base and that this would ultimately limit his ability to reach out to non- White American voters for the 2020 United States presidential election . A four-year Reuters and Ipsos analysis concurred that "Trump's brand of white identity politics may be less effective in the 2020 election campaign." Alternatively, examining

10005-461: The most infamous being January 6, 2021 , at the U.S. Capitol, which became violent and led to the arrest of their leader, Henry "Enrique" Tarrio and many others. Proud Boys identify as supporters of Donald Trump for President and are outspoken supporters of Americans having unfettered access to firearms by way of the 2nd amendment of the US constitution, having expressed the belief that gun law reform

10120-464: The only people who care enough about us to work consistently for our liberation are us. Our politics evolve from a healthy love for ourselves, our sisters and our community which allows us to continue our struggle and work. This chapter also details the CRC's belief that the destruction of capitalism, imperialism, and patriarchy is necessary for the liberation of oppressed peoples. The CRC identified as socialists and believed that work must be organized for

10235-452: The opinion of those within the CRC, gave Black women a tool, from which they could use to confront the oppression they were facing. The CRC also claimed to expand upon the prior feminist adage that "the personal is political," pointing to their own consciousness-raising sessions, centering of Black speech, and communal sharing of experiences of oppression as practices that expanded the phrase's scope. As mentioned earlier K. Crenshaw, claimed that

10350-450: The oppression of Black women is illustrated in two different directions: race and sex. In 1988, Deborah K. King coined the term multiple jeopardy , theory that expands on how factors of oppression are all interconnected. King suggested that the identities of gender, class, and race each have an individual prejudicial connotation, which has an incremental effect on the inequity of which one experiences. In 1991, Nancie Caraway explained from

10465-616: The other hand, many conservative think tanks and media outlets have criticized identity politics for other reasons, such as that it is inherently collectivist and prejudicial. Center-right critics of identity politics have seen it as particularist , in contrast to the universalism espoused by many liberal politics, or argue that it detracts attention from non-identity based structures of oppression and exploitation. A leftist critique of identity politics, such as that of Nancy Fraser , argues that political mobilization based on identitarian affirmation leads to surface redistribution—that is,

10580-460: The personal being political, the most basic form of activism was an emphasis on coming out to family, friends and colleagues, and living life as an openly lesbian or gay person. By the mid-1970s, an "ethnic model of identity" had surpassed the popularity of both the homophile movement and gay liberation. Proponents operated through a sexual minority framework and advocated either reformism or separatism (notably lesbian separatism ). While

10695-457: The problems encountered within the group itself; not having a strategy for organizing or focusing. It notes that the group experienced a period of inactivity and disaccord due to a “lesbian-straight split” as well as differences in class and politics. After many members decided to stop attending, the group shifted focus and became a study group, with one of their primary goals being to gather a collection of Black feminist works. The final chapter of

10810-648: The retreats, hoped that they would foster political stimulation and spiritual rejuvenation." The second retreat was held in November 1977 in Franklin Township, New Jersey, and the third and fourth were scheduled for March and July 1978. "After these retreats occurred, the participants were encouraged to write articles for the Third World women's issue of Conditions , a journal edited by Lorraine Bethel and Barbara Smith ." The importance of publishing

10925-512: The same breath to be quiet both for the sake of being 'ladylike' and to make us less objectionable in the eyes of white people. In the process of consciousness-raising, actually life-sharing, we began to recognize the commonality of our experiences and, from the sharing and growing consciousness, to build a politics that will change our lives and inevitably end our oppression....We realize that the only people who care enough about us to work consistently for our liberation are us. Our politics evolve from

11040-518: The same poll, David Smith has written that "Trump’s embrace of white identity politics may work to his advantage" in 2020. During the Democratic primaries , presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg publicly warned that the president and his administration were using white identity politics, which he said was the most divisive form of identity politics. Columnist Reihan Salam writes that he is not convinced that Trump uses "white identity politics" given

11155-493: The sidelining of the working class in politics, allowing New Labour to protect its radical flank while pressing ahead with Thatcherite policies. Some supporters of identity politics take stances based on Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak 's work (namely, "Can the Subaltern Speak?") and have described some forms of identity politics as strategic essentialism , a form which has sought to work with hegemonic discourses to reform

11270-434: The significance of interlocking systems of oppression. Author Barbara Smith and other delegates attending the first (1973) regional meeting of the National Black Feminist Organization (NBFO) in New York City provided the groundwork for the Combahee River Collective with its efforts to build an NBFO Chapter in Boston. The NBFO was formed by Black feminists, Florynce Kennedy , Margaret Sloan-Hunter , and others, reacting to

11385-441: The social group is generated, feelings of affiliation between group members are strengthened, and the movement's agenda becomes more representative. Specifically for the United States, Weldon suggests that organizing women by race strengthens these movements and improves government responsiveness to both violence against women of color and women in general. By the early-1960s, lesbian , gay , bisexual , and transgender people in

11500-542: The statement, "collective members were active in the struggle for desegregation of the Boston public schools, in community campaigns against police brutality in Black neighborhoods and on picket lines demanding construction jobs for Black workers." The collective was also politically active around issues of violence against women , in particular the murder of twelve Black women and one white woman in Boston in 1979 . According to Becky Thompson , associate professor at Simmons University in Boston and author of A Promise and

11615-435: The system that oppresses them. It also addresses the development that occurred as a result of World War II, allowing its following generation financial and educational access not granted previously; through the use of tools tokenism has granted them to effectively fight the oppressor. This chapter also introduced the CRC's belief that the oppression that Black women endured was rooted in interlocking oppressions. As Black women,

11730-765: The term is found in the April 1977 statement of the Black feminist socialist group, Combahee River Collective , which was originally printed in 1979's Capitalist Patriarchy and the Case for Socialist Feminism , later in Home Girls: A Black Feminist Anthology, edited by Barbara Smith , a founding member of the Collective, who have been credited with coining the term. In their terminal statement, they said: [A]s children we realized that we were different from boys and that we were treated different—for example, when we were told in

11845-499: The understanding of "universal" goals. Others point out the erroneous logic and the ultimate dangers of reproducing strong identitarian divisions inherent in essentialism. For queer theorist Paul B. Preciado , "movements for the emancipation of subaltern minorities (racial, gender and sexual, etc.) ended up crystallizing into identity politics. Without having dismantled the regimes of racial, sexual or gender oppression, identity politics have ended up renaturalizing and even intensifying

11960-402: The urgency of the crisis. In a 1994 interview with Susan Goodwillie, Smith noted that this action moved the group out into the wider Boston community. She commented that "the pamphlet had the statement, the analysis, the political analysis, and it said that it had been prepared by the Combahee River Collective. That was a big risk for us, a big leap to identify ourselves in something that we knew

12075-500: The views of politicians at the very top of the Labour Party. Today, progressive intellectuals are far more interested in issues of identity. ... Of course, the struggles for the emancipation of women, gays, and ethnic minorities are exceptionally important causes. New Labour has co-opted them, passing genuinely progressive legislation on gay equality and women's rights, for example. But it is an agenda that has happily co-existed with

12190-455: Was (re-)coined by the Combahee River Collective in 1977. The collective group of women saw identity politics as an analysis that introduced opportunity for Black women to be actively involved in politics, while simultaneously acting as a tool to authenticate Black women's personal experiences. In the ensuing decades, the term has been employed in myriad cases with different connotations dependent on context. It subsequently gained currency with

12305-407: Was a major source of difficulty. The CRC also believed that because of its position as Black lesbian women, its members could not rely on having access to racial, sexual, heterosexual, or class privileges. The CRC also believed that they experienced the psychological toll of its fight differently because of the "low value placed upon Black women's psyches in this society." In this view, the members of

12420-487: Was also emphasized in the fifth retreat, held July 1979, and the collective discussed contributing articles for a lesbian herstory issue of two journals, Heresies, and Frontiers . "Participants at the sixth retreat...discussed articles in the May/June 1979 issue of The Black Scholar collectively titled The Black Sexism Debate ...They also discussed the importance of writing to Essence to support an article in

12535-540: Was also for me a time of some of the most intensive and meaningful political organizing I have ever done. The Black feminist political analysis and practice the Combahee River Collective had developed since 1974 enabled us to grasp both the sexual-political and racial-political implications of the murders and positioned us to be the link between the various communities that were outraged: Black people, especially Black women; other women of color; and white feminists, many of whom were also lesbians. Smith developed these ideas into

12650-499: Was further amplified for Democratic female candidates who were rated as feminist. These results demonstrate that gender identity has and can function as a cue for voting behavior. Scholars of social movements and democratic theorists disagree on whether identity politics weaken women's social movements and undermine their influence on public policy or have reverse effects. S. Laurel Weldon argues that when marginalized groups organize around an intersectional social location, knowledge about

12765-519: Was going to be widely distributed." Historian Duchess Harris believes that "the Collective was most cohesive and active when the murders in Boston were occurring. Having an event to respond to and to collectively organize around gave them a cause to focus on..." The CRC emphasized a fundamental and shared belief that "Black women are inherently valuable, that...(their) liberation is a necessity not as an adjunct to somebody else's but because of (their own) need as human persons for autonomy..." and expressed

12880-529: Was mainly organized by and concerned with the struggles of white women (especially those of a middle or upper class background). Likewise, women were also often left out of the mostly male led black liberation movement . The Combahee River Collective notes that Black women are often looked down upon and that many individuals have a misconception that Black women simply want greater power. However, Black women, regardless of status or ethnicity, simply want to be included and treated properly. Black feminists all shared

12995-546: Was the involvement of Black feminists in the Black Liberation movement of the 1960s and 1970s which impacted CRC members' ideologies and led to disillusionment with those movements. It mentions how this genesis is inherently a personal one for black women, tying into childhood experiences where one realizes the harsh reality of both racism and sexism. This keeps black women into looking deeper into their experiences and political analysis feminism uses in order to dismantle

13110-508: Was the responsibility of white women, they would work by demanding accountability of these white women toward this end. In this final chapter it includes that they do not support stepping others to achieve progress, as this would go against their vision and create a process as a nonhierarchical collective towards their revolutionary society. They believe to ensure this one must practice being self critical and continuously examining politics as they develop. The Combahee River Collective Statement

13225-418: Was to assess the state of the movement, to share information about the participants' political work, and to talk about possibilities and issues for organizing Black women." "Twenty Black feminists...were invited (and) were asked to bring copies of any written materials relevant to Black feminism—articles, pamphlets, papers, their own creative work – to share with the group. Frazier, Smith, and Smith, who organized

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