‘Is identity politics the death of discussion?’

We often hear about what it means to be black in America but rarely consider what it means to be black in Britain, let alone Bristol. But after the fall out of Brexit, the general public are forced to think about what it means to be British as identity politics are discussed more and more.

The student population in Bristol have actively been using their voices to inspire those around them: Mandem, an online platform for black men, recently held an event called Has Identity Politics Has Gone Too Far?, exploring the pros and cons of the theory. Taking place in the harbourside’s Arnolfini, it brought blackness into the heart of Bristol.

Bristol is the New Black, a black-led and LGBT inclusive collective based in Bristol, hold regular discussions through their Sunday School about issues pertinent to queer black community. Taking it a step further, gal-dem is a magazine started by Liv Little, alumni of the University of Bristol, bring identity politics and black conversation to the national stage.

But what is identity politics? The term covers a range of issues, from discrimination of race, gender, religion, sexuality, and class. The need for identity politics came about in the 1960s during the American Civil Rights movement, as African Americans and white women lobbied for their rights to be granted and institutional oppression to be dismantled.

Some question the relevance of identity politics, which they consider to be a hindrance, with ‘political correctness’ allowing the next generation to be ‘unreasonably’ sensitive. But when language and power combined can be used to diminish people’s humanity, there needs to be a space for privileges to be addressed and challenged without being considered ‘special snowflakes’. If certain sub-groups are not being represented and treated fairly, then identity politics is valid and necessary.

Often, people’s criticisms of identity politics are actually issues of language being misused and people taking incorrect action on ideas that were meant to foster communication.

Identity politics has always been concerned with having a fair political system and helping those who face disparities for not fitting into culturally constructed norms. When it is the norm to be straight you are unprotected if you are a part of the LGBTQ+ community, if the norm is to be white than a brown or black person is in danger, and if the norm is to be a man then what is left for women?

Yasmin Warsame questions if identity politics really does stop discussion happening

Asking these questions and demanding that the government do a better job in establishing rights for all. Statements like ‘identity politics has gone too far’ simply aren’t valid. We should instead be asking where the discussion went wrong.

As a black woman, I can provide a microcosm of such a misunderstanding. The misconception of racism has led to terms such as ‘reverse-racism’ being used in intellectual debates. The Oxford English Dictionary’s definition of racism is: ‘Prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one’s own race is superior.’

This definition is not only historically inaccurate but is politically motivated to oversimplify a complex experience that black people face. Race has historically been a system applied to non-white people, leaving white people to exist as the standard and the norm.

The notion of the ‘black’ race only exists because of its difference to whiteness. Blackness was created by Europeans in order to justify the slave trade and the acts of atrocities that has been committed against Africans including the destabilisation of their countries. There is a lack of credit given to African nations for creating some of the first recorded civilisations, instead denoting that they were barbarians in need of European interference.

A ‘black’ person can discriminate against a ‘white’ person, but is incapable of being racist as it is a very specific form of discrimination. When you make statements that anyone can experience racism you deny the depths of the experience that black people have faced.

There is a misunderstanding of what racism is due to different comprehensions of the term.

It can similarly be applied to identity politics, which was never about the dismissal of white people, straight people, or men, rather an attempt to have a society that truly reflects the people in it. It was never meant to be the death of discussion, rather the start of one. With organisations in Bristol such as Mandem and Bristol is the New Black, the discussion will only continue and grow.

Yasmin Warsame is a student at UWE.

Header photo courtesy of Bristol is the New Black

Read more: ‘An explosive examination of race and identity politics’