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Monday | September 08, 2003

Atrios scores re: identity politics

Like much of the liberal media, Tapped has "courageously" come out against identity politics -- in other words, slamming minority groups that organize to improve the plight of their community against ingrained and institutionalized racism (or sexism, for that matter).

Atrios went on the offensive, and has eloquently rebutted Tapped efforts to counterattack.

It's irrelevant whether I "like" or "don't like" identity politics. It has always been with us and it always will. People group together based on similar characteristics and political desires, and in states like Texas and California where Fear of the Brown Horde is a steady theme of right wing politicians, it's odd to criticize the Brown Horde itself for uniting and standing up for itself. "Identity politics" is largely meaningless phrase which is only ever applied to minority interests, even when it is being practiced to a greater effect and degree by the majority or otherwise politically power. For this reason, one rarely hears of Cuban-American "identity politics" in Miami, because they're they dominant political group. Therefore, they get to graduate from "identity politics" to "interest group," or simply "in charge." No one refers to the Christian Coaliation as practitioners or "identity politics" either, even though they choose to practice it while externally identifiable minorities are almost forced to engage in it.

Posted September 08, 2003 10:14 AM | Comments (60)





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