Between two identitarian politics? 'Uncle Sam' poses with cardboard cut-outs of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, November 2016.Jane Barlow/Press Association. All rights reserved.
In a recent essay for AlterNet, Bill Fletcher defends the general concept of identity politics in the following terms: "What passes for identity politics should actually be understood as social justice struggles that aim for consistent democracy and become, as a result, component parts of the larger class struggle. ... This is not self-indulgent activity by people who, for whatever reason, do not recognize the importance of economics."
Many forms of identity politics amount to struggles for different types of social justice, and are not simply concerned with personal identity. Despite the intensely self-oriented conception of politics promulgated by these cultures, all politics is ultimately a form of identity politics. It's peculiar that only Hillary Clinton's campaign has been accused of indulging too much in identitarianism by stressing Clinton's gender, whilst Donald Trump's campaign is oddly not considered an example of identity politics, even though he ran explicitly as a tough, white alpha male.
