The Combahee River Collective is credited with coining the term "identity politics", which they did in 1974 in this manifesto. Founders had been in the Black Panthers, the National Black Feminist Organization, and various movements. 2/11 https://www.reed.edu/cres/assets/Combahee-River-Collective,-Black-Feminist-Statement,-How-We-Get-Free---Taylor.pdf …
-
-
Show this thread
-
Barbara Smith, one of the group's founders, later expressed frustration: "I am often disheartened, however, to see support for identity politics and intersectionality reduced to buzzwords", while explaining her support of Sanders' campaign. 3/11https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/feb/10/identity-politics-bernie-sanders-endorsement …
Show this thread -
For insight on the social dynamics here, I turned to E. Franklin Frazier, an important figure in Black Studies and the first Black president of the American Sociological Association. He wrote "Black Bourgeoisie", a study of elite capture, in 1955. 4/11https://chipublib.bibliocommons.com/item/show/781494126_black_bourgeoisie …
Show this thread -
According to Frazier, Black elites are an insecure "lumpenbourgeoisie", controlling a small bit of money and cultural life - just enough to handle their social insecurities (caused by comparison to white elites) but not enough to genuinely control historical events. 5/11
Show this thread -
That was 1955. Now, we have Black congresspeople:
@KeeangaYamahtta's book discusses the Congressional Black Caucus' co-sponsorship of Reagan's 1986 anti-drug laws, which ramped up the war on drugs in ways that hit Black working class folks hard. 6/11https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/778-from-blacklivesmatter-to-black-liberation …Show this thread -
Why does this happen? We can learn something from
@add_hawk and game design: Design decisions structure the decisions players face. Similarly, lawmakers, real estate and media moguls, and (yes) influencers decide what trends exist for the rest of us. 7/11 https://read.dukeupress.edu/the-philosophical-review/article-abstract/128/4/423/140564/Games-and-the-Art-of-Agency?redirectedFrom=fulltext …Show this thread -
But this also explains why elite capture is no special problem of Black politics or any other sort of identity politics. I could have just as easily focused on universities, or *within* working-class organizations, or whatever (see the article for a clown car of examples) 8/11
Show this thread -
If you ask me, the Combahee River Collective's manifesto is what an smart response to this problem looks like. Movements for racial justice sidelining of women's issues? Feminist movements silencing women of color and/or from the Global South? That's elite capture! 9/11
Show this thread -
"Considered as a response to this kind of problem, Smith’s vision of identity politics...wasn’t an alternative to a political coalition but an enabling condition of it." The point is to bring back into view the aspects of justice that elites often choose to ignore. 11/11
Show this thread -
And the point of doing *that* isn't to form a new moral pecking order, or to participate in "fractionalization". It's to build a political agenda compatible with their liberation, as Black women - and everyone else's as well. 11/11
Show this thread -
PS I focused on Frazier and
@TheBarbaraSmith in this thread, but benefited from loads of work in figuring out elite capture for this article: s/o@Johngithongo,@kamaumuiga, David Farber, Patrick@Gathara, Camilla Orjuela,@skeatings,@amandahess,@Eitanhersh,@JebSprague, othersShow this thread
End of conversation
New conversation -
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.