Dossier

Identity Politics

What Unites Us

Where do we want to go as a society? This question, but above all the answer to it, depends not least on our perspective on the world and on how we ourselves are affected by discrimination. In short: the answers we find are also identity politics. With this page we want to create a contribution to the introduction to the topic of identity politics:

What does the term actually mean? What can alternative terms be and how can common questions about identity politics be answered from a power-critical point of view?

In addition, the site is dedicated to current - including international - debates on the topic, integrating what is currently being discussed.

Finally we turn our attention to possible visions, and thus to the central question of where we want to head as a society.

"It is not our differences that devide us. It is our inability to recognize, accept, and celebrate those differences.

- Audre Lorde -

Identity politics - What does it constitute? Who is it there for?

We want to create a space for power-critical engagement with debates around identity politics.

By Barbara Unmüßig, Josephine Apraku, Lou Herbst, Gita Herrmann, Ines Kappert and Jana Prosinger

Authors

"I embrace identity politics because for the marginalized, the disadvantaged, and the minority groups still grappling for purchase in our politics, identity is the strongest defense against invisibility.

- Stacey Abrams -

Identity Politics: What does the term actually mean?

As an introduction, it is explained what can be understood by identity politics. Definitions, historical perspectives, and talking points convey the complexity of identity politics and provide an opportunity to find one's way in the thicket of the discourse.

Identity Politics Has Always Existed How Do We Deal with the Vagueness of the Term? A Suggestion

A democratic, human rights oriented ‘We’ has to be interested in bringing transparency into the thicket of identity politics.

By Ines Kappert

"identity politics is the
dismissive term for what
we used to call 'civil rights'.

- Samantha Bee -

Statements From Everyday Life - One Option for the Argumentation Around Identity Politics

Statements we encounter in conversations about left-wing identity politics which it is important to respond to.

By Josephine Apraku and Lou Herbst

"Without a sense of identity, there can be no real struggle

- Paulo Freire -

Glossary (Explanation of terms)

Debates on the Topic

Whether in Germany, Tanzania or Malaysia – there is a debate about identity politics in many countries, but it is conducted in different ways. The authors analyze political discourses, explain contradictions and challenges, but also share painful experiences made in debates about identity politics.

Universalism Versus Identity Politics: Of a False Juxtaposition

Essay

Why are identity politics and criticism of discrimination often equated with one another and what consequences does this have for dealing with the ongoing reality of social violence in a serious way?

By Max Czollek

Schriftzug über einer Treppe: "Welcome to the common room"

Are identity politics inevitable in order to stand up for (one's) rights?

Commentary

Left-wing identity politics must be more about foregrounding people’s common concerns and not their common characteristics, says Dr. Julia Ehrt, Executive Director at ILGA World.

By Dr. Julia Ehrt

Left-wing Liberal Identity Politics in Bosnia and Herzegovina

In the 1990s, excesses of ethnonationalism led to the devastating Balkan Wars. Today, left-wing liberal agents are trying to free themselves from these destructive forces.

By Marion Kraske

Malaysia’s hysterical obsession over one transwoman and the struggle for true political reform

Only Sajat, a successful entrepreneur and social media influencer in Malaysia, has been targeted by the government and the public for years - mostly because of her gender identity.

By Serene Lim

Syrische Frauenaktivistinnen sitzen in einem Sitzungssaal vor Mikrofonen

The Syrian Women's Advisory Board – lessons to be learned

An example of misunderstood identity and representation politics on the part of the UN: the international intervention to include Syrian women in the negotiation process was not a success.

By Rula Asad

All of you – and much more

all of you - and much more
You are what is worth fighting for
You are the reason for the struggle
forward.
Before us – everything.
Carry each other in our arms.
Carry each other through hard times.
Carry each other.
Nothing and no one can hinder us.
Everything and much more is before us.
We are our allies.
We are the new movement.
We bring movement.
We move.
We are new,
free,
self-confident,
self-critical,
self-loving,
self-admiring.
SELF.

Aminata Touré From: Wir können mehr sein. Die Macht der Vielfalt (We Can Be More – The Power of Diversity)
© 2020 by Publisher Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne.

"This focusing upon our own oppression is embodied in the concept of identity politics. We believe that the most profound and potentially most radical politics come directly out of our own identity, as opposed to working to end somebody else's oppression.

- Combahee River Collective -

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A Conversation with Friends

In this video Nicholas Calvin - filmmaker and fotografer from Dar es Salaam - reflects on the relevance and implications of identity politics in Tanzania. He shows how the topic touches us on a personal level and yet is linked to global developments that are bigger than individuals: colonialism, eurocentrism and global power relations define our position in the world and the way how we relate to one another.

Visions: Where we want to go

Participation, alliances and empowerment - identity politics creates visions for a more just society. The focus is on the perspectives of people who experience discrimination in their everyday lives due to parts of their identity. Wishes and personal experiences find their place here, but also concrete suggestions as to what a progressive, intersectional identity politics can look like.

“We won’t make progress if we don’t talk about differences in power”

Interview

Lou Herbst talks to Ed Greve about the opportunities and limitations of an anti-discriminatory identity politics, intersectionality and what ultimately leads to a divided society.

By Lou Herbst and Ed Greve

Every. Body. Else

By Isaiah Lopaz

I begin in We

My next birth.
Freedom it will.
Be. Become. Here.

Intrinsically,
entirely,
I begin in We.

Intrinsically,
specifically,
I come into being here.

My next birth.
Freedom it will.
Be. Become. Here.

By Muna AnNisa Aikins

A Collection of Alternative Terms (and Narratives) Around Identity Politics

In day-to-day life, it is sometimes said that the spoken word matters. But actually, the spoken word always matters, because language creates facts. It is a powerful tool. It can whitewash one thing and play down another. Some things it gives a new meaning, some things it turns into the opposite. An example of this are the terms and narratives rewriting the field known as identity politics. Some of this vocabulary has passed into everyday usage, is used in personal conversations, in the media, and to some extent in science and politics too. Even advocates of the idea of increased participation and justice – both are at the core of ‘identity politics’ – use the terms, because they are bold and it is immediately known what is roughly meant by them. Therein lies their advantage. Their disadvantage: The complexity at stake in all the discussions about participation and justice is reduced to buzzwords. This becomes a problem when certain buzzwords do not just reduce the ideas behind concrete terms and narratives, but downright delegitimise them.

People change through the words we use to describe them. They become that which is ascribed to them.” What essayist Kübra Kübra Gümüşay writes applies not only to people. It applies to our way of looking at and talking about the world. It is not a one-way process. Other descriptions and new concepts become opportunities to capture new perspectives. This is the concern of the following collection of terms and narratives in the field of identity politics. Instead of constricting it, the collection should help to widen the view of what many debates and discussions are geared toward

Term	Alternative Term
identity politics	politics of acknowledgment and participation
cancel culture	consequence culture or: culture of responsibility
woke	sensitive to the issue of discrimination
snowflakes	considering the interests of minorities and the marginalised
dictatorship of political correctness	Berücksichtigen der Interessen von Minderheiten und Marginalisierten
moralising	considering the ethical aspects
PC police	people who point out that language can discriminate and exclude, and how
ban on speech	invitation to forgo discriminatory and marginalising language
victim identity	awareness of marginalisation and discrimination among those affected
gender ideology	gender justice
attack on freedom of speech	demand that there be no place for discriminatory and exclusionary attitudes in social discourse
dividing society	highlighting different attitudes within society
outrage culture	permanently attentive to issues of social justice
reverse racism	non-centring white people or their exclusion to create safe spaces for BIPoCs and postmigrants