Identity politics

IDENTITY POLITICS is a term that describes a political approach wherein people of a particular religion, race, social background, class or other identifying factor form exclusive socio-political alliances, moving away from broad-based, coalitional politics to support and follow political movements that share a particular identifying quality with them. Its aim is to support and centre certain groups’ concerns, agendas, and projects, in accordance with specific social and political changes.

The term was first used by the Combahee River Collective, a Black feminist lesbian socialist organization active in Boston from 1974 to 1980, in 1977. It was used all over by the early 1980s, and in the ensuing decades has been employed in various cases with radically different connotations depending upon the term’s context. It has gained currency with the emergence of social activism, manifesting in various dialogues within the feminist, American civil rights, and LGBT movements, disabled groups, as well as multiple nationalist and postcolonial organizations, for example, the Black Lives Matter movement.

culture wars

CULTURE WARS are cultural conflicts between social groups and the struggle for dominance of their values, beliefs, and practices. It commonly refers to topics on which there is general societal disagreement and polarization in societal values are seen. The term is commonly used to describe contemporary politics in Western democracies with issues such as homosexuality, transgender rights, pornography, multiculturalism, racial viewpoints, abortion and other cultural conflicts based on values, morality, and lifestyle being described as the major political cleavage.

Michelle LeBaron describes different cultures as “underground rivers that run through our lives and relationships, giving us messages that shape our perceptions, attributions, judgments, and ideas of self and other.” She has stated that cultural messages “shape our understandings.” Due to the huge impact that culture has on us, LeBaron finds it important to explain the “complications of conflict:”

First, “culture is multi-layered,” meaning that “what you see on the surface may mask differences below the surface.”

Second, “culture is constantly in flux,” meaning that “cultural groups adapt in dynamic and sometimes unpredictable ways.”

Third, “culture is elastic,” meaning that one member of a cultural group may not participate in the norms of the culture.

Lastly, “culture is largely below the surface,” meaning that it isn’t easy to reach the deeper levels of culture and its meanings,