lawrence jarach essentialism and the problem of identity politics

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Lawrence Jara

Essentialism and theProblem of Identity Politics

2004


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Contents

Preliminary Teses for a Longer Discussion on Essentialism andthe Problem of Identity Politics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3


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Preliminary Teses for a Longer Discussion on

Essentialism and the Problem of Identity Politics

1. Essentialism is the idea that there exists some detectible and objectivecore quality of particular groups of people that is inherent, eternal, and unal-terable; groupings can be categorized according to these qualities of essence,

which are based on such problematic criteria as gender, race,ethnicity, na-tionalorigin,sexualorientation,and class. ese externalqualities are almostalways marked by visualcues,makingthe categories more obvious and/oreasier to notice. Tese qualities contain social and more importantly from

an antiauthoritarian perspective hierarchical significance to those markingthe cues and those marked by the cues: sexism, in the case of gender; racism inthe case of skin tone; the unwanted aention of authorities in the case of anyand alldifferent looking/acting people. Racism,sexism,classism,and most

other forms ofhistoricaloppression areideologies and policies maintainedand justified by essentialism.2. For a person or group of people on the receiving end of racism and sexism (etc.),

essentialism can appear to be a powerful defensive perspective and counter-narrative.Rather than promoting categories ofdenigration and subordination,the counter-essentialistdiscourse of IdentityPolitics aemptstoinvert thehistorical categories of oppression into categories of celebration. is is oeninitiated by appropriating insults and turning them into acceptable, evenhonorable, labels. Whathad once beenintendedto harmthe Other therebybecomes a way to show pride in the Group Self. Keeping with the inversionprocess, the counter-essentialist oen merely turns the categories of Othernessupside-down, making visually identifiable members of theOppressor group

into enemies. A sense ofbelonging either to a groupthathas oppressed orbeen oppressedisimmaterial essentialismis not the exclusive domain ofoppressors.

3. Te discourse ofcounter-essentialismincludestheideologies of innocenceand victimization, which can quickly transform an identity based on the his-tory of shared oppression into a posture of superiority. Counter-essentialismsupposedlyprovesthat thevictimis eternally innocent,so victimsactionsandreactions are forever beyondreproach; allgood Christians know thatsuffering is ennobling. Oppression is never the result of anything the victim

has actuallydonetothe Oppressor,so whateverstrategies of resistancethevictim chooses are legitimate. Self-defense is its own justification.

4. e adherents of Identity Politics rarely if ever question the criteria lead-ing to victimization. ey cant conceive of the possibility that the elevation of


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any particular culturally constructed marker into a significant value ladencategory could lead to oppression. Unlike Oppressor essentialists, counter-es-sentialists ignore the complexities of relations of power (which are conditionaland contingent); but likeOppressor essentialists, they revel in the smug self-

assurance that their Identity is static, independent, and eternal. Essentialistscreate and maintain their own privileges through the institutionalization ofpower; counter-essentialists through the institutionalization of innocence.

5. Franz Fanon, Ernesto CheGuevara, Patrice Lumumba, and many other irdWorld national liberationists even less reputable to anarchists (like Castro, Tito,and Mao) inspired generations of self-described revolutionaries in the ImperialMetropole to fight against discrimination, racism, colonialism, and oppression.Tatall theseTird World nationaliststhought, wrote, and acted within astatist and usually Marxist-Leninist, which is to say Stalinist frameworkis also clear. Despite this, as successful anti-imperialists, they retain a certainappealand credibilityamong anarchists. Aerall,whatanarchistwould be

in favor of imperialism?6. Te philosophy and vision of self-determination requires an appeal to world

political opinion; it is as if so-called revolutionary nationalists wanted to say:We are mature enough to run our own governments, make treaties, engagein trade with the established states of the world, and control troublesomedissidents. On a certain level, these soon-to-be national leaders accepted andpromoted the justification for colonialism namely that the natives were toochild-like oruneducatedto determinethe properexploitation of the naturalresources of their lands. Tey wanted to show either through the force ofmorality (as in the totally mythologized case of Gandhi) or the force of arms

(as in the totally romanticized case of Che and others) that they were worthyofbeingreckoned and negotiated with,and eventually recognized as equalpartnersintherealm ofstatecra. Nationalbordersinvented andimposedby colonial powers would be respected, trade agreements would generally (oreventually) be concluded with the former colonial power, laws drawn up bythe former colonial masters against internal dissidence would continue to beused, etc. e native bourgeoisie took over all the institutions of government,deflecting through appeals to explicitlycross-class ethno-nationalunityand solidarity the more basic struggle between exploiter and exploited.

7. e gender-and ethnic-basedliberation movementsin Europe andthe UnitedStates of the late-1960s/early-1970s took their ideological cues and justifica-tionsfromthese successfulanti-colonialiststruggles. Terhetoric of TirdWorld national liberation was used constantly, to the point where many

African-Americans, some women and other self-identified oppressed groupsbeganto describethemselves asinternalcolonies.Minorities ofallkinds


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had alreadybeenidentified as subordinate Others by the elites ofhierarchicalsocieties; the facile identification of the colonial exploiter and his institutionsas the oppressive Other is at the heart of the trouble with Identity Politics. eassigning of blame, responsibility, and guilt to everyone identified as belong-

ingtothe categoryofoppressive Othercurtailsthe possibilityof transcendinghierarchyand domination; this process merely invertsthevalues placed onparticular classes or groups of people, regardless of their personal complicityin historical or contemporary oppression.

8. Formostwomenliberationists, the categoryofWoman reducedto a her-metic category based only on gender became the only category of im-portance. Te denigration and oppression ofwomen was cleareverywhere:discrimination, rape and other forms of violence, harassment, the expectationand enforcement of motherhood and heterosexuality, and the myriad ways ofkeeping women dependent and subservient. Women liberationists declaredPatriarchy to bethe Enemy,sometakingthe next logicalstep and making

Men reduced to a hermetic category based only on gender the Enemy.For most black nationalists, the category of Black reduced to a hermetic cat-egory based on genetics and race became the only category of importance.Te denigration and oppression of blacks was clear everywhere: discrimina-tion in the form of Jim Crow, lynchingandother forms of violence,harassment(especially by law enforcement), the expectation and enforcement of servility,and the myriad ways ofkeeping black people dependent and subservient.Black nationalists declared White Racismto be the Enemy,sometakingthenext logical step and making White People reduced to a hermetic categorybased on genetics and race the Enemy.

9. Race and gender,similar to otherculturallyspecificideologicalconstructs,are both real and unreal. Unreal in the biological sense; conceptions of thesedistinctions do not correspond to objective that is, non-culturally based categories. Real in the sociological sense; there are clear ways of discerningracism,sexism,and other forms ofdomination and exploitationregardlessofanyparticularcultural context. Teyare therefore deserving ofcriticalaention. Tose who championthe discourse ofgenderstudies have donean excellent job in analyzing and shaeringthe contingent nature ofhowgender is understood, showing that particular combinations of chromosomesand genitalia are onlya part (and arguablynoteventhe most importantpart)of what makes gender meaningful. Critical race theory is also an encouragingand interesting recent anti-essentialist development.

10. Colonialists andtheirapologists consistentlypromote mythico-ideological

categories of domination. People opposed to hierarchical institutions already


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understand and expect that. e main conceptual contradiction of anti-impe-rialists (those who supposedly oppose colonial practices) is their own accep-tance ofEuro-American prejudices and stereotypes onlywiththevaluesinverted. Te categories ofdenigrated Other (black,savage,woman)created

and maintained for the exclusive benefit of Eurosupremacists and sexists arenot called into question; their objectivity is self-evident, based on the commonsense of the culture originallycreated by theracists and sexists. Everyonecantellwhethersomeoneis male or female its biological. Everyone cantell whether someone is black or white its scientific. Even before (butespecially during) the formative years of European colonialism, Science andBiologywere seen as methodologiesfordiscerning Objective Reality. Anti-imperialists, as good Marxist-Leninists, find nothing troubling about Science;its what separates their particular ideology from all other forms of socialism.However,Scienceis an ideologicallydriven pursuit. Tinking ofScience assome neutral examination and discernment of facts for the sake of technologi-

cal progress, increasing human liberation, and knowledge about the universeshould betreated as anyother form ofwishful thinking. Knowledgeis notseparate from the uses to which it has been and is currently being put.

11. Group self-definition would seemtofit in withthe anarchist principles ofself-organization and voluntary association. Counter-essentialist identitycan even be understood as an aempt to recapture kinship-based community,destroyed by the imposition of industrial capitalism (which is based on divisionof labor and the resulting atomization and alienation of individuals from eachother). It remains problematic,however,because it is an identity forged withinthe ideology of victimization; it rests on the same arbitrary and constructedcategories that were previously formulated to justify oppression. Creating asupposedly liberatory counter-narrative that remains based on visual markerscan never possibly question the validity of an oppressive ideology. e otherproblemisthe promotion ofan ideologicallyconstructedidentity. Such anidentity demands group loyalty and solidarity over and above the actual livedexperiences of the individuals involved.

e person who is aracted to the promised sense of belonging offered by anyinstitution (whether an oppressed group, a hierarchical organization, or anyformation promoting Unity) must agree to the prior distinctions and categoriescreated by others. Once the counter-essentialist agrees to the boundaries ofinclusion/exclusion (which is step one on the road to separatism), s/he cantidentify or be identified any other way; whatevercriteria already exist inthe counter-essentialist narrative are the only ones that maer. is Identity

Fundamentalismrequiresthatanypersoninterestedinradical transforma-tion relinquish the ability to define her/himself. S/he must dissolve any self-


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awarenessinto pre-existing categories ofsignificance. Biology no maerits ideological and cultural constraints is Destiny; subjectivitycan onlybe sacrificed and/or suppressed. One of the first authoritarianlies is thatsomeone else knows beer.

Essentialists,merelybycasting a cursoryglance at theirchosen Other,alreadyknow all they need to know about that person. Separatists, nationalists, anti-imperialists essentialists all call that Liberation.


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Lawrence JarachEssentialism and the Problem of Identity Politics

2004

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lawrence jarach essentialism and the problem of identity politics

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