How Identity Movements Shape Politics

As a result of the government-mandated segregation, resistance in both the United States and South Africa escalated. In other words, the history of the African civil rights movement taught: “Nationalism has been tested in the people’s struggles . . . and found to be the only antidote against foreign rule and modern imperialism” (Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom 2008, 156). By comparing and contrasting the Jim Crow Laws and apartheid, we are able convey that nationalism ultimately lead to activism and reform.

In her book Nomadic Identities: The Performance of Citizenship, May Joseph explores the issues of migrancy and displacement among modern peoples. She contends that citizenship “is not organic but must be acquired

The book Black, Brown, Yellow, and Left, by Laura Pulido, studies the politicization process which led to the development of several Third World Left activist groups in Los Angeles, as well as their defining characteristics. To do so, Pulido outlines salient historical continuities that shaped resulting racial and economic landscapes, which in turn influenced how activist groups framed their goals and chose the methods they used to achieve those goals. With politicization as a foundation for her argument, Pulido demonstrates how the Third World Left, in varying degrees, failed to take into account the larger racial and economic structures which shaped their development, and highlights the resulting lack of solidarity among the groups which

The twenty-first century has seen its share of civil rights actions. The movements and groups harmed in the United States has been shown support from countries in the Middle East, the UK, and even as far as Asia that are uninvolved but sympathetic and have given support back. When looking back on the nineteenth and twentieth century there was the same connection between countries even transatlantic from Britain to the United States. In a time with revolutions for social and political change and eventually war society was ripe for petitions for minority groups wanting emancipation including Women, Slaves, and Jews. The different groups supported and worked off each other to achieve their goals. The groups helped the others because they understood what it felt like to be marginalized from key aspects of a free and involved life.

Shelby Steele opens the article “New Sovereignty” with the narration of a speech he was giving at a University. He talks about the early civil rights movements and its narrow demand for only constitutional rights. By the late Sixties/early Seventies the concept of collective entitlement was on the map. Steele then tells the audience of his idea of New Sovereignty and how it wishes to push for equality among all groups without creating inequality like many sovereign constituencies did so in the past. Steele then goes in depth of how only inclusion answers history’s exclusion and that how grievance groups have it all confused. His father’s disciple and wisdom had a huge impact on Steele’s perception of the Civil Rights movement and much of his

As civilians we live in a world predicated and pronounced on difference ,a world in which havoc and chaos affirms our differences and presents us as a nation struggling to find our self-identity. We are faced with serious and complex criminal and racial challenges that proves our estrange.our divide occurred as soon as men were created and we are left with the incessant clicking that is injustice,which was thought to be corrected by our forefathers.

To wield one of these axes2 against the other may benefit a select few who do not experience intersection of the two identities, but this benefit comes at the cost of further oppression, and is therefore never genuine progress. To step on the back of one group in order to gain “freedoms” is never radical, and never genuine

Does the annihilation of the BPP by U.S. government suggest that this organization had the potential to not only challenge but also to change the system? Is this why the organization has been vilified and not part of the dominant narrative of the history? Does the radical ideology truly hold the key to successfully challenge and overthrow the status-quo? For these reasons, this paper will first examine the role of black nationalism in shaping the radical ideology of the BPP. Secondly, this paper will examine activism of BPP and the organization’s effectiveness in challenging the systematic oppression. The ultimate goal of this paper to look beyond the dominant narrative of history and examine the role of radical ideology in social movements through the

Mark Lilla’s argument in The End of Identity Liberalism definitely recognizes the underlying problem in the “success story” (Lilla 1) of the American diversity: a lack of unifying force (Lilla 1). However, it seems to be too arbitrary to deduce from the defects of identity liberalism that the possible solution is only an either-or choice: the necessity of a unifying force should predicate the end of identity liberalism. The end of identity liberalism will come at some time, but today must not be the time. The end of identity liberalism should be based upon universally equal acceptance and representation of different individuals, a point that is ignored by Lilla in his argument.

1. Randall Kennedy, an African American law professor at Harvard, has written that identity politics is “mere superstition and prejudice.” “I eschew racial pride,” says Kennedy, “because of my conception of what should properly be the object of pride for an individual: something that he or she has accomplished. I can feel pride in a good deed I have done or a good effort I have made. I cannot feel pride in some state of affairs that is independent of my contribution to it. I did not achieve my racial designation” (Atlantic Monthly, May 1997, p. 56). Do you agree? Explain, indicating how you think Kymlicka and Young (Part 4, Chapter 18) might respond.

However, today I will be arguing against this concept as a suitable method of dealing with issues as I believe that identity politics encourages segregation in society. I will let you know that I am not against the concept of identity politics as a whole because there are benefits from the idea. But I am against how it has been executed since it encourages division based on personal factors, dismisses individualism in situations and promotes the idea of only being able to contribute towards an issue if part of a specific group.

Social movements shed light to social issues present in communities and harvest social change in political, religious, educational, health, government, and other institutional matters. Social movements give individuals a clear outlet to concerns about the rights and well-being of themselves and others, mostly through public protest and conversation, in order to promote social justice and democracy. Throughout history, humans naturally ended up starting movements to simply improve their way of life and movements have continually aided in a remarkable change in communities. In the essay “From Civil Rights to Megachurches,” Charles Duhigg explains the three critical steps that initiative successful social movements. Social movements must

In a time in the world where we are seeing increased violence and backlash against government and police control, it is necessary to look at the past and see what led our country to the state it exists in. Many issues such as police brutality, court decisions and riots are due to institutionalized inequalities. Desegregation during the Civil Rights Movement had a false appearance of equality that brought about a complex form of discrimination and resistance in response. Black lives were still being neglected and peaceful protests quickly morphed into militancy based in black nationalism. Malcolm X, a black revolutionary, once said that “Algeria was a police state. Any occupied territory is a police state. Harlem is a police state. The police in Harlem are like an occupying force. The same conditions that forced the noble people of Algeria to resort to terrorist-type tactics…those same conditions prevail in every Negro community in the United States.”Malcolm’s idea that a police state leads to terrorist tactics in negro communities is based in historical evidence of colonialism and segregation and can be reinforced by the arguments of Cabral,Covington, Daulatzai, The Battle of Algiers and the Spook who Sat by the Door. In this paper, I will argue that as Malcolm X stated, negro communities in the United States are subject to internal colonialism, segregation and isolation thus leading to the colonized people of these communities revolting against the police state which

Bob, Clifford. “The Quest for International Allies.” The Social Movements Reader: Cases and Concepts. Ed. Goodwin, Jeff, and Jasper, James M.. Chichester, U.K.: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009. 353-61. Print.

The third characteristic describes the mode of identity formation that is predominant in NSM’s, whose center tends to be “cultural and symbolic issues,” in contrast to the mobilization around economic grievances in other social movements (Buechler & Cylke 277). The shared symbols and cultural meanings of members of NSM’s serve to redefine daily life in the context of the movement.