Thread by @Noahpinion

1/Random thread about "identity politics".

I think when people on the right and center talk about "identity politics", they tend to conflate a number of very different movements and ideas.

E.g. areomagazine.com/2018/09/25/ide…

2/Movements like BLM and MeToo are often labeled "identity politics", as are hard-multiculturalist ideas like anti-appropriation.

But these are very different. One is about winning equality within American society, the other is about carving out spaces within American society.

3/The campaign to reduce police violence and racism in the justice system is about fair and equal treatment of individuals by overarching American institutions.

As is the campaign to enact stricter cultural norms against sexual assault.

These are not separatist movements.

4/Furthermore, the campaigns for representation in government and for diversity in corporations and academic departments are, again, about inclusion within overarching institutions.

They're about, in Nixon's memorable words, getting "a piece of the action".

5/These ARE identity politics, just as the Civil Rights movement and the marriage equality movement were identity politics, because they focus on the unfair treatment people suffer on the basis of their identity.

But they are *not* hard-multiculturalism.

6/Hard-multiculturalism is, generally and loosely speaking, the idea that groups have rights beyond what individuals have, and that society should be structured around rules for groups, rather than just rules for individuals.
e-ir.info/2012/03/22/the…

7/The kind of "identity politics" that @FukuyamaFrancis and others have been warning about (e.g. here: 52-insights.com/interview-poli…) is far less prominent in America than one might think.

8/Hard-multiculturalism is increasing in America, but I think it's still small.

It's mostly limited to calls for segregated spaces on college campuses, and to online rhetoric ("my culture is not your prom dress", etc.).

9/I share centrists' worry that hard-multiculturalism could make it harder to stitch together a unified national identity.

But I think it's still a very small worry.

And the big, popular types of identity politics - BLM, MeToo, and the rest - are good and necessary.

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