The Neoliberal Co-Optation of Identity Politics: Geo-Political Situatedness as a Decolonial Discussion Partner

Rodríguez V., Jorge Juan

doi:10.13169/decohori.5.1.0101

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Horizontes Decoloniales / Decolonial Horizons

Volume 5

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The Neoliberal Co-Optation of Identity Politics: Geo-Political Situatedness as a Decolonial Discussion Partner

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Author(s): Jorge Juan Rodríguez V.

Publication date (Print): 1 January 2019

Journal: Horizontes Decoloniales / Decolonial Horizons

Publisher: Pluto Journals

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Abstract

Responding to the 2016 United States Presidential election, this piece contests that the popularly deployed phrase “identity politics” is not Identity Politics as articulated by Black feminists of the Combahee River Collective but is rather a neoliberal co-optation of Identity Politics. By situating neoliberalism and the Black feminists that articulated Identity Politics as historical contemporaries, the piece argues that as the former spread to institutions like universities it co-opted, depoliticized, a-historicized, and misappropriated the latter. The piece concludes by offering “Geo-Political Situatedness” as a theoretical frame that undermines neoliberalism's co-optation of Identity Politics.

Key words: Neoliberalism, Identity Politics, Black feminism, Combahee River Collective

Respondiendo a las elecciones presidenciales E.E.U.U. del 2016, este proyecto argumenta que la frase “identity politics” en su uso popular no es la Política de Identidad originalmente articulada por las feministas Negras del Combahee River Collective pero es una cooptación neoliberal de la Política de Identidad. Situando el neoliberalismo y las feministas Negras que articularon la Política de Identidad como contemporáneos, este proyecto sugiere que cuando el neoliberalismo se expandió a instituciones como universidades pudo cooptar, de-politizar, mal-apropiar, y sacar de su contexto histórico la Política de Identidad. El proyecto concluye ofreciendo el concepto de “Geo-Political Situatedness” como un marco teórico que debilita la cooptación neoliberal de la Política de Identidad.

Key words: Neoliberalismo, Política de Identidad, Feminismo Negro, Combahee River Collective

Em resposta às eleições presidenciais dos Estados Unidos em 2016, este estudo argumenta que a expressão “identity politics”, popularmente utilizada, não é a Política de Identidade originalmente articulada pelas feministas negras do Combahee River Collective, mas sim uma cooptação neoliberal da Política de Identidade. Colocando o neoliberalismo e as feministas negras que articularam a Identidade Política como contemporâneos, este estudo sugere que, quando o neoliberalismo se expandiu para instituições como universidades, foi capaz de cooptar, despolitizar, apropriar-se indevidamente e remover a Política de Identidade de seu contexto histórico. O estudo conclui oferecendo o conceito de “GeoPolitical Situness” como referencial teórico que enfraquece a cooptação neoliberal da Política de Identidade.

Key words: Neoliberalism, política de identidade, Feminismo Negro, Combahee River Coletiva

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Author and article information

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Journal ID (doi): 10.2307/j50019322

Journal ID (jcode): decohori

Title: Horizontes Decoloniales / Decolonial Horizons

Publisher: Pluto Journals

ISSN: 2545-8728

ISSN: 2422-6343

Publication date (Print): 1 January 2019

Volume: 5

Issue: ( doiID: 10.13169/decohori.5.issue-1 )

Pages: 101-130

Article

Publisher ID: decohori.5.1.0101

DOI: 10.13169/decohori.5.1.0101

SO-VID: afa13f2b-5df0-4eaa-88c1-e4368e1eeb0b

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References

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Day, Keri (2016). Religious Resistance to Neoliberalism: Womanist and Black Feminist Perspectives. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
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Comments

Comment on this article

[1] Beliso-De Jesús, Aisha M. (2018). <<Confounded Identities: A Meditation on Race, Feminism, and Religious Studies in Times of White Supremacy>>. Journal of the American Academy of Religion 86: pp. 307–340.

[2] Branigin, Anne (2017). <<It's Time to Reclaim 'Identity Politics>>. The Root (November). [digital magazine]. Available at: <http://www.theroot.com/it-s-time-to-reclaim-identity-politics-1820269813> [Accessed November 9, 2017].

[3] Central Committee, Young Lords Party (2010). <<Young Lords Party Position Paper on Women>>. In: Darrel Enck-Wanzer (ed.), The Young Lords: A Reader. New York: New York University Press, pp. 169–174.

[4] Combahee River Collective (1977). The Combahee River Collective Statement. Boston: Combahee River Collective.

[5] Crenshaw, Kimberlé (1989). <<Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics>>. University of Chicago Legal Forum 1.8: pp. 139–167.

[6] Day, Keri (2016). Religious Resistance to Neoliberalism: Womanist and Black Feminist Perspectives. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

[7] Denzel Smith, Mychal (2017). <<What Liberals Get Wrong About Identity Politics>>. New Republic (September). [digital magazine]. Available at: <https://newrepublic.com/article/144739/liberals-get-wrong-identity-politics> [Accessed September 11, 2017).

[8] Douglass, Patrice (2016). <<At the Intersections of Assemblages: Fanon, Capécia, and the Unmaking of the Genre Subject>>. In: P. Khalil Saucier and Tryon P. Woods (eds.), Conceptual Aphasia in Black: Displacing Racial Formation. Lanham: Lexington Books, pp. 103–126.

[9] Ferrao, Luis Ángel (1990). Pedro Albizu Campos y el nacionalismo puertorriqueño. San Juan, PR: Ed. Cultural.

[10] Fraser, Nancy (1995). <<From Redistribution to Recognition? Dilemmas of Justice in a ‘Post-Socialist’ Age>>. New Left Review 212: pp. 68–93.

[11] Fraser, Nancy (2013). <<Feminist Politics in the Age of Recognition: A Two-Dimensional Approach to Gender Justice>>. In: Nancy Fraser (ed.), Fortunes of Feminism: From State-Managed Capitalism to Neoliberal Crisis. London; New York: Verso, pp. 159–173.

[12] Fraser, Nancy (2013). <<Reframing Justice in a Globalizing World>>. In: Nancy Fraser (ed.), Fortunes of Feminism: From State-Managed Capitalism to Neoliberal Crisis. London; New York: Verso, pp. 189–208.

[13] Fraser, Nancy (2017). <<The End of Progressive Neoliberalism>>. Dissent (January). [digital magazine]. Available at: <https://www.dissentmagazine.org/online_articles/progressive-neoliberalism-reactionary-populism-nancy-fraser> [Accessed January 2, 2017].

[14] Hayek, Friedrich A. (1978). Law, Legislation, and Liberty Volume 2: The Mirage of Social Justice. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

[15] Hayek, Friedrich A. (2012). Prices and Production: And Other Works on Money, the Business Cycle, and the Gold Standard. Auburn, AL: Ludwig von Mises Institute.

[16] Hull, Gloria T., Patricia Bell Scott, and Barbara Smith, eds. (2015). All the Women Are White, All the Blacks Are Men, But Some of Us Are Brave: Black Women's Studies. New York: The Feminist Press at the City University of New York.

[17] Janken, Kenneth R. (2017). <<The Civil Rights Movement: 1919–1960s>>. National Humanities Center (November). [digital magazine]. Available at: <http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/tserve/freedom/1917beyond/essays/crm.htm> [Accessed November 10, 2017].

[18] Keynes, John Maynard (1936). The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money. New York: Palgrave.

[19] King, Tiffany Lethabo (2015). <<Post-Indentitarian and Post-Intersectional Anxiety in the Neoliberal Corporate University>>. Feminist Formations 27.3: pp. 114–138.

[20] Lilla, Mark (2016). <<The End of Identity Liberalism>>. New York Times (November). [digital magazine]. Available at: <https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/20/opinion/sunday/the-end-of-identity-liberalism.html> [Accessed November 18, 2016].

[21] Lilla, Mark (2017). The Once and Future Liberal: After Identity Politics. New York: HarperCollins.

[22] Maldonado-Torres, Nelson (2010). <<On the Coloniality of Being: Contributions to the Development of a Concept>>. In: Walter D. Mignolo and Arturo Escobar (eds.), Globalization and the Decolonial Option. London; New York: Routledge, pp. 94–124.

[23] Metcalf, Stephan (2017). <<Neoliberalism: The Idea That Swallowed The World>>. The Guardian (August). [digital magazine]. Available at: <http://www.theguardian.com/news/2017/aug/18/neoliberalism-the-idea-that-changed-the-world> Accessed August 18, 2017.

[24] Mignolo, Walter (2011). The Darker Side of Western Modernity: Global Futures, Decolonial Options. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

[25] Mignolo, Walter (2010). <<Introduction: Coloniality of Power and De-Colonial Thinking>>. In: Walter D. Mignolo and Arturo Escobar (eds.), Globalization and the Decolonial Option. London; New York: Routledge, pp. 1–21.

[26] Moraga, Cherríe and Gloria Anzaldúa, eds. (2015). This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color. Albany: State University of New York Press.

[27] National LGBTQ Task Force (2016). <<Black Feminism & the Movement for Black Lives: Barbara Smith, Reina Gossett, Charlene Carruthers>>. Youtube. [recording]. Available at: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eV3nnFheQRo> [Accessed April 9, 2018].

[28] Neely, Brooke and Michelle Samura (2011). <<Social Geographies of Race: Connecting Race and Space>>. Ethnic and Racial Studies 34.11: pp. 1933–1952.

[29] Payne, Charles M. (2007). I've Got the Light of Freedom: The Organizing Tradition and the Mississippi Freedom Struggle. Berkeley: University of California Press.

[30] Puar, Jasbir K. (2007). Terrorist Assemblages: Homonationalism in Queer Times. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

[31] Ransby, Barbara (2007). Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement: A Radical Democratic Vision. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.

[32] Reed, Jr., Adolph (2013). <<Marx, Race, and Neoliberalism>>. New Labor Forum 22.1: pp. 49–57.

[33] Rehmann, Jan (2014). Theories of Ideology: The Powers of Alienation and Subjection. Chicago: Haymarket Books.

[34] Taylor, Keeanga-Yamahtta (2017). How We Get Free: Black Feminism and the Combahee River Collective. Chicago: Haymarket Books.

[35] Wacquant, Loïc J.D. (2009). Punishing the Poor: The Neoliberal Government of Social Insecurity. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

[36] Walsh, Catherine (2010). <<Shifting the Geopolitics of Critical Knowledge: Decolonial Thought and Cultural Studies ‘Others’ in the Andes>>. In: Walter D. Mignolo and Arturo Escobar (eds.), Globalization and the Decolonial Option. London; New York: Routledge, pp. 78–93.

[37] Wanzer-Serrano, Darrel (2015). The New York Young Lords and the Struggle for Liberation. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

[38] Wilder, Craig Steven (2013). Ebony & Ivy: Race, Slavery, and the Troubled History of America's Universities. New York: Bloomsbury Press.

[39] Wrenn, Mary (2014). <<Identity, Identity Politics, and Neoliberalism>>. Panoeconomicus 61.4: pp. 503–515.