“The instrument of torment was identity. As some philosopher said, identity politics is zoological. If we don’t see our partial struggles as part of a general project of human emancipation, we turn on each other and fight over crumbs.” – Ken MacLeod
Ken MacLeod is writing about Egypt and it’s implications. I recommend reading the rest of his short entry and coming back.
Sound familiar? He’s talking about breaking free of the poison that is identity politics, the poison that uses our differences to cause insurmountable divisions among us. The poison that says “you can never understand me, and it makes me angry that you shall even try, or that you don’t try hard enough, or…” This poison starts off innocently enough, with the banding together of like minded – or really, like identified – people who say “we need space and time to ourselves” for various reasons. These safe enclaves where group identity is forged can become, if we are not careful, fortresses. When fortresses are built, war comes closer.
We see this all the time in our various communities. One might say, “I am Asatruar and you are Wiccan and therefore, we are completely different. I do not need to throw in my lot with you.” The reverse has also been said. The divisions are multifold: cisgendered vs. transgendered, Caucasion vs. African American, Muslim vs. Christian, male vs. female, Kinsey 0 vs. Kinsey 6, Kinsey 6 and 0 vs Kinsey 3 and 4, Contemporary Wicca vs British Traditional Wicca, Mystery Religion vs Open Source, Thelemite vs Pagan, Goth vs neo-Tribal Hippy, Emo vs Goth, Roman Catholic vs Eastern Orthodox, Reform Jewish vs Orthodox Chasid, Working Class vs Upper Class, Magical vs Mundane…
Difference is good. Difference is healthy. True diversity keeps the cosmosphere running and interesting. But true diversity requires that each part, while distinct – with its own markers, behaviors, and job – also must function fully within the whole. There must be an acknowledgment of the coming together, of what unites us, rather than only what divides.
For Ken MacLeod, a Marxist Atheist, this boils down to our humanity. For me, a Pagan, a simultaneous non-dualist and polytheist (It’s a mystic dissonance that creates harmony. We like it.), it boils down to this: we are all part of the fabric of Being. God Herself flows through us and we flow back. Or if you prefer, the Void becomes a fecund place. Each cell of my body needs its separation in order to function, but without the whole body, its function has no meaning or purpose, and divorced from context, it flounders and dies. We are the whole and the whole is us. The places where we diverge are also points of connection. Our very symbiosis requires this separation. We need to not make the separation the thing itself.
We stand together, or we fall, regardless of how we may identify ourselves. The paper wasp can attack the honey bee, or they can both find ways to pollinate the garden, enabling the fruits of the future.
We share a beautiful garden. Let’s choose to live.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Ian 'Cat' Vincent, Steve Keane and DH, thorncoyle. thorncoyle said: New blog post up on Egypt, identity politics, Paganism, @amendlocke and living in a big garden: http://bit.ly/fRNEVp [...]
“To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness. What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places — and there are so many — where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction. And if we do act, in however small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.”
- Howard Zinn
Part of me completely agrees with you. Identity politics can easily fall into ideologies of separation and racial essentialism, ways of being and thinking that do not even come from our ancestral traditions. Native American novelist Leslie Marmon Silko said in an interview once that “for the old folks I grew up with, the Indian way is to learn how a person is inside their heart, not by skin color or affiliation. . . . That attitude about nationalism comes in much later, that’s much more a European way of looking at things.” I think this is true for African-Americans as well.
Still, while I recognize that there is a unity of being, another part of me recognizes the deep pain and anger of the ancestors, how black and brown people continue to be ridiculed and exploited by whites, how we waste away and are disenfranchised in the prison system, and this knowledge reaffirms my identity as a black person with interests that conflict with the hegemonic, Euro-centric ideologies that pervade this country. All the nations of the Americas were founded to bring wealth and power to Europeans and their descendants, and black and brown people are sacrificed so that whites can maintain power. This is harsh knowledge, but the more I think about our history, the more I see it as true. Why else, throughout the mid-20th century, were white immigrants given preference over blacks for industrial jobs? Why were Irish-Americans’ path to “whiteness” laid through the policing of African-American communities, and through mocking them in black-face? Even today, white restaurant and hospitality workers, regardless of their nationality or background, are favored over blacks.
I think most black people recognize this intrinsically. There is a maxim in the black community that says you have to work twice as hard for half as much. Identity politics are needed to help stress the historical relationship between white people and black and brown people. This way we don’t fall into the myth of meritocracy, and we continue to recognize how blacks are exploited so that whites can prosper. Once this is recognized, we can start looking beyond individual success stories, turn to each other and say, “How can black people as a race expect economic equality with whites when this whole system was created to privilege them over us?” Maybe then we can start thinking about more equitable systems.
Ultimately, we all have to work together if we want change, but we also need to do our own, inner-community work. While we do have to value what is in a person’s heart, I also see African-Americans as a large tribe, Chicanos and Native Americans as groups with related histories and interests to ours, and black and brown people’s interests oftentimes running contrary to those of Euro-Americans. Sometimes I have to say, “I am black, so I value my people and their interests first,”or “I am black, you are white, and our interests are probably opposed here,” even though this is tribalistic and can lead to racial essentialism if taken too far. Obviously people who are actively working toward social justice are allies, as are those who are actively anti-racist, but I still have to assume that the desires and actions of the overculture (I’m appropriating this term from you, Thorn) are probably not in the best interest of black and brown people. This is what history has left us, unfortunately, and it’s up to us if we want change.
Tarot, thanks for the excellent Zinn quote! Rest assured that I will be stealing it in the future!
Evan,
Thanks for your well stated thoughts. I agree strongly that institutionalized racism (and sexism) is still a problem. You might note that I said “if we are not careful” our separation builds a fortress. Once we are in a fortress, building coalitions or seeing who might be our allies grows next to impossible. It is not about squashing anger or playing nice, but rather, about not completely alienating or dismissing each other.
As I stated, separation is necessary – for healing, strength building, to do certain jobs and activities – but so is recognizing we are part of the whole.
So yes, do our own community work and try to still build coalitions. We are on the same page, here. at least, I think so!
Blessings – T>
Thorn, as someone who frequently teaches medicine to people without technical backgrounds, I appreciate your use of metaphor, and I like the syllogism of citizens:polity=cells:body. As you say, cells need their individuality to carry out their functions, and the “like minded” cling together (internal organs), but organs also need the context of the whole body to thrive. An organ that refuses entry by other cells of the body, such as the blood or lymph, soon dies.
As a Reclaiming Pagan, I’ve often used the metaphor of an ecosystem in the same way–esp. on the medicine wards, where most practitioners seem to only understand Power Over and hierarchy. We do not expect the bear to be a redwood or a nematode; and the idea of any one of those lording over the others seems to our minds immediately ridiculous. All of those living things make up the tapestry of the forest; all are needed. As my teacher Robin Dolan once said, “In Feminism, everyone is valuable.”
Sometimes I use the metaphor of an orchestra the same way: violins, woodwinds, drums–all are needed.
The body can teach us lessons about our communities. In the liver, for example, there are cells that appear identical histologically, but whose functions are radically different. Despite the difference, each is essential to life. There are also cells that live in one organ even though they originated in another–such as the Langerhans cells, part of the skin, whose “tribe” or “nation” is actually the immune system, but who make their place in the skin and keep that organ in maximum health, so that the whole body thrives.
When we struggle with hegemony, for which none of us feel individually responsible, we are indeed all collectively responsible. When we see a “cell” or a citizen different from us, even if their role in society, perspective, and appearance seem far removed, we must recognize our shared mission of justice. As a Reclaiming bard, Jeffrey Alphonsus Mooney, sings, “I see myself in you.” (http://www.reclaimingquarterly.org/music/music1.html#brew). We have to be the Change.
Thanks for the inspiration, Evan and Thorn! And Tarot, too, for recalling one of our Mighty Dead, Howard Zinn.
It strikes me that the points at which we diverge, the areas between positions, are the most fertile. We NEED to have radically different backgrounds and experiences so that we can enrich each other through our openness to listening and valuing each other, even – especially – when we profoundly disagree. That “no man’s land” between us and those we seek to distance ourselves from is the most fertile of all. “Where there’s fear, there’s power”.
I don’t mean that we need to hurt and exploit and devalue each other, or that Power Over is necessary for our growth, because clearly it is damaging and limits our power and creativity and ability to be truly ourselves; those painful, scary areas of salted earth, though, can be sat with and encouraged to return to their natural states. Those chasms between experiences caused by Power Over can be subverted and made to flourish by a determination to listen and be open and change our relations with each other so that Power Over is transformed.
The more time I spend with Quakers, the more convinced I am that it takes genuine power to be a pacifist, to sit with the scary and the distressing and to “Think it possible that you may be mistaken.”
Thank you for your interview with Damh the Bard – I’ve had a long, difficult struggle with a daily practice (I get on the wagon, fall off the wagon, lose the wagon, forget there’s a wagon I’m supposed to be on…), and recently it’s felt like I’m beginning to move with a flow again. Your reminder that there is no substitute for a daily practice was the latest in a string of reminders, and when I heard it, something answered in me: Stop chasing those other wagons, and start with your own – and make it simple.