Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2009
I believe in the recognition of devices as devices – but I also believe in the reality of those devices. In one century men choose to hide their conquests under religion, in another under race. So you and I may recognize the fraudulence of the device in both cases, but the fact remains that a man who has a sword run through him because he will not become a Moslem or a Christian – or who is lynched because his is black – is suffering the utter reality of that device of conquest. And it is pointless to pretend that it doesn't exist – merely because it is a lie.
Lorraine HansberryO my body, make of me always a man who questions!
Frantz FanonRepresentation has not withered away.
Gayatri SpivakIdentifying “identity politics”
It has become typical to see the widest variety of writers of both popular and academic work arguing against, or discussing the limitations of, something which they call “identity politics.” The positions which are grouped together by this name are not generally categorized that way by anyone who actually holds these positions: such people might refer to themselves, variously, as “nationalists,” “feminists,” “Afrocentrists,” or “multiculturalists,” with further adjectival modifications referring to specific modes of nationalism or feminism (“cultural,” “economic”), or specific political modifiers, like “liberal,” “radical,” or “critical,” the last term of which once denoted marxist sympathies, but does not anymore.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.