Linkbox med anmeldelser, debat og interviews om amerikanske Asad Haiders bog Mistaken Identity: Race and Class in the Age of Trump + Appendiks med socialistisk kritik af identitetspolitik, intersektionalitet, postkolonialisme, privilegieteori, race etc. / Debate, interviews and reviews about Asad Haider’s Mistaken Identity + Appendix with socialist critique of identity politics, intersectionality, postcolonialism, privilege theory, race etc.
Bjarne A. Frandsen.
December 2018- .
See excerpt from the book (Verso, 14 September 2018).
Indhold
Interviews
The Intercept
How identity politics has divided the Left: An interview with Asad Haider by Rashmee Kumar (May 27, 2018). “Asad Haider argues that contemporary identity politics is a ‘neutralization of movements against racial oppression’ rather than a progression of the grassroots struggle against racism.”
Red Pepper
Beyond identity (October 11, 2018). “Aron Keller talks to Asad Haider about race, class and the fight for social justice in Trump’s America.”
State of Nature
Asad Haider: Identity politics and mass self-organisation. Interview by Jon Bailes (Blog, 3 July 2018; online på Internet Archive). “In the following interview I discuss some of the important points he raises.”
Verso
Zombie Manifesto. By Asad Haider (Blog, 1 September 2018). “This critique of identity is absolutely and emphatically not a proposal that race should be put second or waved away. It is an insistence on recognizing the material reality of race as a social relation, and forming a more adequate theoretical understanding of it that can be useful for struggles against racism.”
Mistaking Identity politics: A conversation with Asad Haider by Daniel Denvir (Blog, 14 August 2018) + Part 2 (16 August 2018). “Checking your privilege. Invisible knapsacks. Intersectionality. In his new book … Asad Haider questions the terms and concepts that underpin much liberal and left conversation about race and racism.”
Anmeldelser/Reviews
Eftertryk
Identitetspolitikkens tveæggede sværd. Anmeldelse af Rune Møller Stahl (20. august 2018). “Grundlæggende er Haiders analyse her, at identitetspolitikken, som den praktiseres i dag, ikke kan betragtes som en videreudvikling af tidligere tiders modstandsbevægelser imod racemæssig undertrykkelse, men snarere at de er en neutralisering af disse bevægelsers emancipatoriske ambitioner. ”
Information
Er identitetspolitik en neutralisering af antiracistiske bevægelser? Anmeldelse af Søren Mau (18. august 2018). “Asad Haider forsøger i en ny bog at formulere en strategisk kritik af identitetspolitik, der undgår højrefløjens karikaturer såvel som socialistisk klassereduktionisme. Desværre får han aldrig rigtigt forklaret, hvem han egentlig kritiserer.”
Idédebat: Køn og race er ikke adskilte størrelser. Af Malte Frøslee Ibsen (30. juni 2018). “Da identitetspolitikken blev reduceret til et spørgsmål om diversitet inden for det bestående, blev den ufarlig og tandløs. Hvis ikke den skal splitte venstrefløjen, er det nødvendigt, at venstrefløjen selv insisterer på, at klasse ikke kan skilles fra køn og race – og omvendt.
Counterfire
Mistaken Identity: Race and Class in the Age of Trump. Review by Elaine Graham-Leigh (October 18, 2018). “Mistaken Identity reveals identity politics as the strategy of defeat, but solidarities are built through engagement in existing movements.”
The Guardian
Mistaken Identity – the best criticism of identity politics. Review by Ben Tarnoff (31 May 2018). “This riveting and inspiring study of race and class in the age of Trump argues that an emphasis on identity should lead to one on solidarity.”
Irish Marxist Review
The pitfalls of identity politics. Review by Marnie Holborow (Vol.7, No.22, 2018, p.72-74). “Haider’s book is a great read and provides useful insights into the debates within the rising wave of socialism in the US today.” Scroll down.
Jacobin
The identity mistake. Review by Melissa Naschek (August 28, 2018). “… while Mistaken Identity is able to demonstrate how the ideology and rhetoric of ‘identity’ has been used as a weapon against the working class, it falls short of making a plausible case that it could ever be a boon to socialist politics.”
Logos
Mistaken Identity. Review by Aidan J. Beatty (Vol.17, No.2, Fall 2018). “Short and readable, the book provides an intellectual genealogy of anti-racism and of the myriad ways in which contemporary anti-racist politics go awry.”
Marx & Philosophy Review of Book
Mistaken Identity. Review by Brant Roberts (12 August 2018). “Few of today’s popular theoretical concepts are free from Haider’s critique, as intersectionality, Afropessimism, white privilege and class reductionism are treated with equal analysis.”
OpenDemocracy
Not only the difference between identities but the differences within them. Review by Samir Gandesha (OpenDemocracy, 19 November 2018). “Mistaken Identity … is a remarkably well argued, theoretically sophisticated critique of identity politics.”
Socialist Party
Mistaken Identity. Review by Laura Fitzgerald (November 7, 2018). “Haider’s central thesis is that identity politics fails to recognise the historical roots of racial division … From this it limits its anti-racism to seeking recognition and inclusion on an individual basis and ends up reinforcing the structures that serve to perpetuate that very racism.”
Socialist Review
Mistaken Identity. Review by Esme Choonara (Issue 438, September 2018). “… a thoughtful and thought-provoking book about race, class and the limitations of identity-based politics.”
SocialistWorker.org
Charting a path in the identity politics debate (May 18, 2018). “Fainan Lakha reviews a book by Asad Haider that makes a contribution toward helping activists in movements opposing oppression grapple with important debates.”
Weekly Worker
Mistaken versions of Maoism. Review by Mike MacNair (Issue 1209, June 28, 2018). “Haider’s book thus represents a young man’s effort to get in contact with the lost radicalism of the 1970s, against what has become of identity politics. He makes the attempt by working through a wide range of books and articles between then and now.”
Workers’ Liberty
A critique of identity politics. By Fraser Andrews (20 July 2020). “Mistaken Identity is a concise six-chapter exposition and critique of ‘Identity Politics’ from a broadly Marxist perspective. It a reasonably accessible text with a bit of effort made by the author to write in a not-too-academic style, using autobiograpy or biography, analysis, commentary and historically relevant episodes to make the arguments.”
Appendix
Socialist critique/discussion of identity politics, intersectionality, privilege theory, race etc.
Forfatter udstiller overlegent højrefløjens hykleri om krænkelsesparathed, men tør ikke gøre det samme med venstrefløjen. Af Nima Zamani (Altinget.dk, 10. september 2022). “Mikkel Thorups bog Kampen om Identitetspolitik [Klim, 2022, 303 s.] er overlegen, når den fremstiller højrefløjens hykleriske angreb på den identitære venstrefløj. Problemet – og det er et alvorligt et af slagsen – er bare, at Thorup ikke tør kritisere venstrefløjen, som han formentlig er mest ligesindet med.”
”Venstrenarrativer” eller klassekamp? (Revolution, 25. juli 2022). “‘Venstrefløjen har behov for et nyt narrativ’. Sådan lyder idéen, som i dag har grebet mange på venstrefløjen verden over, i takt med, at der bliver forsøgt skabt alternativer til de dominerende borgerlige partier. Hvad er indholdet bag denne idé om et ‘nyt narrativ’? Og kan den hjælpe med at tage arbejderklassen fremad på nogen måde? Yola Kipcak forklarer her, hvorfor ordlege ikke kan erstatte klassekamp.”
Den identitære venstrefløj: Reaktionært kultursværmeri i navn af solidaritet (pdf). Af Torben Bech Dyrberg (Kritisk Debat, 1. juni 2021, s.49-57). “… [det] paradigmatiske skift i venstreorientering, fra den første postbølge og opkomsten af det nye venstre i starten af 1960erne over postmoderne ’dekonstruktion’ af oplysningsværdier fra slutningen af 1970erne til ind i 1990erne, og til udbredelsen af multikulturalistisk identitetspolitik fra 1990erne og frem som en stadig mere toneangivende strømning på den værdipolitiske venstrefløj.” Scroll ned.
Er racisme flokresistent? Af Marc Wilkins (Solidaritet.dk, 13. maj 2021). “En lære af historisk underkuelse og forsøg på udryddelse af diverse folkeslag er, at vi bør undgå identitetstænkning. Der er ingen nødvendige karaktertræk forbundet med etnisk herkomst.”
Fransk forfatter: Europas venstrefløj skal gøre op med den amerikanske identitetspolitik (Information.dk, 24. april 2021). Rune Lykkeberg interviewer Caroline Fourest (forfatter til Generation krænket, Grønningen 1, 2020, 170 s.). “#MeToo er en fantastisk revolution, og det er vigtigt at få undersøgt vores sprogs fordomme og fjendebilleder. Men den amerikanske identitetspolitik er også en meget stærk kulturel magt, som overlader friheden til højrefløjen, og som den europæiske venstrefløj ikke skal lade sig kolonisere af.”
Queer-teori. I Marie Frederiksen: Marxisme og feminisme: hvorfor klassekamp er kvindekamp (Forlaget Marx, 2020, 203 s., online på Marxist.dk). “I denne del af bogen fremføres den marxistiske kritik af queer-teori og dets filosofiske grundlag [s.25-47].”
Marxisme kontra intersektionalitet. Af Jessica Cassell (Revolution, 22. januar 2020). “Marxister er imod at opdele folk på separate akser af undertrykkelse og argumenterer for behovet for enhed …”
In English: Marxism vs. Intersectionality (In Defence of Marxism, 13 July 2017). “Intersectionality, despite the best intentions of many of its proponents, cannot adequately explain the origins of the varying forms of oppression, and therefore the solutions.”
Afkoblet fra virkeligheden: Kønsideologi er baseret på fejlbehæftet videnskab. Af Amanda MacLean (Magasinet Arbejderen, nr.3, september 2019, s.12-19; online på Arbejderen.dk, 23. oktober 2019). “Venstrefløjen må holde op med at lade som om, at biologisk køn hverken eksisterer eller har en betydning.”
In English: Decoupled from reality (Weekly Worker, Issue 1247, April 18, 2919). With debate: Letters (Issue 1248, April 25, 2019) + Against biological determinism, by Finlay Scott Gilmour (Issue 1249, May 2, 2019) + Sex is not psyche, by Amanda MacLean (Issue 1250, May 9, 2019). See also Amanda MacLean: A world without gender (Issue 1330, 14 January 2021).
Tre måder, vi taler forbi hinanden i ‘krænkelsesdebatterne’ (Videnskab.dk, 21. august 2019). Bogomtale: “Må man sige neger? Når vi diskuterer den slags, ender vi ofte i en skyttegravskrig, hvor de krænkelsesparate og deres modpart misforstår hinanden – og det er en skam.” Fra Silas L. Marker og Vincent F. Hendricks: Os og Dem: Identitetspolitiske akser, ideer og afsporede debatter (Gyldendal, 2019, 215 s.).
Hvid til hvid: refleksioner over vores hvidhed. Red. Agnes Hartvig mfl. (2020, 70 sider; online på Internet Archive). “Dette er et zine, der er et resultat af fælles refleksioner over vores egen hvidhed … som får os til at spørge os selv, om vi overhovedet kan være antiracister og hvide på en gang?”
Twilight of the Woke. By Dustin Guastella (Jacobin, July 23, 2024). Review of Susan Neimam, Left is not Woke (Polity, 2023, 160 p.). “Susan Neiman’s [book] is a wonderful little book. The kind more intellectuals need to write.”
Palestine and the classless politics of settler colonial theory (Marxist Left Review, Issue 27, Autumn 2024) “Jordan Humphreys builds on his earlier work in critiquing settler colonial theory, this time as applied to arguably its strongest possible case.”
Critical notes on postcolonial theory. By Martin Thomas (Workers Liberty, 31 December 2023). “The most brightly-packaged items on the best-stocked shelves in left academia feature ‘postcolonial theory’ and ‘decolonisation’. A common thread is the replacement of social and economic class as an axis of analysis and struggle by the axes of colonial/ decolonial, Indigenous/ settler, etc. In some ways it recapitulates what was called ‘Third-World-ism’ in the 1960s.”
We can’t change the world without focusing on class. By Paul Prescod (Catalyst Review, September 3, 2023). Review of No Politics but Class Politics (Eris, 2023, 392 p.): “Walter Benn Michaels and Adolph Reed show how an identity politics that obscures class politics and ignores economic inequality only makes the many miseries around us worse.”
Bookwatch: challenging the ideology of race. By Ken Olende (International Socialism, Issue 179, Summer 2023). “This article is in three sections covering discussions of the history of racism, what is new about the past decade and, finally, how racism can be challenged.”
To fight racism, the Left should revive its universalist tradition (Jacobin, July 25, 2023). “We spoke to writer Kenan Malik, whose new book, Not So Black and White [Hurst, 2023, 380 p.], interrogates race and its relationship to class struggle today, tracing the rise of identity politics alongside the decline of the labor movement and universalism.” See review by Anneke Demanuele (Marxist Left Review, Issue 26, October 2023) + review by Elaine Graham-Leigh (Counterfire, 5 January 2023) + review by Zine Magubane (Catalyst, Vol.7, No.2, Summer 2023) + anmeldelse af Per Clausen: Alt handler om hudfarve, igen – er identitetspolitikken den nye racisme, spørger Kenan Malik (POV International, 27. februar 2023).
Identity politics: The ruling class’ favoured weapon against the left (Socialist Appeal, December 9, 2022). “Promoted by some activists as a means of combating oppression, identity politics is increasingly being used by the establishment to attack the left and the labour movement.”
The failure of identity politics: A Marxist analysis (Marxist Left Review, Issue 22, Winter 2021). “Sarah Garnham presents a wide-ranging critique of identity politics and its toxic impact on the fight against oppression.”
White Fragility. By Rebecca Green (Socialist Alternative, September 2, 2020). Review of Robin Diangelo’s book (Beacon Press, 2018, 192 p.). “Diangelo has a profoundly pessimistic and ahistorical view on the inevitability of racism. She points repeatedly away from solidarity and instead toward the insurmountable divisions between people of different races.” See also Louise O’Shea: ‘White Fragility’ is a corporate cult (Red Flag, 23 July 2020).
Does Privilege Explain Racism?: Contemporary debates in anti-racism (pdf). By Esme Choonara, Yuri Prasad, Ken Olende & Weyman Benn (Bookmarks, 2020, 52 p.; online at Socialistworker.co.uk). “Is racism explained by ‘white privilege’? Is oppression ultimately a systemic problem or one that emanates from ‘biased’ individuals? And, how is racism connected to wider questions of inequality and power in society?”
Bookwatch: racism and resistance. By Brian Richardson (International Socialism, Issue 168, Autumn 2020). “This article will review some of the publications that have caught the popular mood, reflecting on their strengths and weaknesses.”
Marxism vs. Queer theory. By Yola Kipcak (In Defence of Marxism, 2 December 2019). “In this article we will deal with a particular strand of feminist/gay theory that gained popularity particularly in the 1990s. It has since gained some influence, especially at universities …”
På svensk: Marxism eller queerteori (pdf) (Marxistarkiv.se, 16. juli 2021, s.1-26).
Marxism and post-colonial theory (Marxist Left Review, Issue 18, Winter 2019). “Sagar Sanyal argues that post-colonial theory is an inadequate theoretical and political response to the horrors of colonialism.”
Who’s afraid of Left Populism?: Anti-Policing struggles and the frontiers of the American Left. By Cedric G. Johnson (New Politics, Issue 66, Winter 2019). “… despite Haider’s historicist point about the ‘main obstacles to building socialism’, there are powerful examples of biracial and interracial unionism, where anti-black racism among workers was clearly an impediment to organizing but ultimately did not prevent striking dockworkers and teamsters in post-bellum New Orleans, or miners in the West Virginia Coal Wars, from achieving meaningful solidarity and collective advance.”
Race, class and identity. By Yuri Prasad (Socialist Review, Issue 447, June 2019). “It’s only right that we should want to determine how the world sees us, but it’s wrong to think struggles over identity automatically benefit those facing oppression.”
The history of white identity. By Kenan Malik (Pandaemonium, March 16, 2019). “White identity is the original identity of identity politics, and reveals the reactionary roots of the politics of identity. To challenge inequality and injustice, to defend working class interests, requires us to challenge also the politics of identity, however it expresses itself.” See also other of his essays, talks and interviews on the subject.
Black Feminism and the Combahee River Collective. By Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor (Monthly Review, Vol.70, No.8, January 2019). “The Combahee River Collective Statement is believed to be the first text where the term ‘identity politics’ is used. Since 1977, that term has been used, abused, and reconfigured into something foreign to its creators.”
See also Notes from the Editors (Ibid.) + A Black Feminist Statement by The Combahee River Collective (1977) (Ibid.) + Combahee River Collective (site).
Identity Politics (Historical Materialism, Vol.26, No.2, 2018). “This special issue responds to ongoing debates around what has been termed ‘identity politics’. We aim to intervene in what are make-or-break questions for the Left today.”
See also review by Mike Macnair: Intersectionality is a dead end (Weekly Worker, Issue 1206, 7 June 2018). “Sections of the left are beginning to cotton on to the extent to which ‘identity politics’ and ‘intersectionality’ are neoliberal projects, argues Mike Macnair. But they do not yet offer a clear alternative.”
Marxism vs Identity Politics (In Defence of Marxism, 28 September 2018). “The time has come to call things by their right name: that is, to state clearly that identity politics and all the related nonsense that has raised its head in recent years represents a clearly reactionary tendency, which must be combated with the utmost vigour.”
The return of idealism: identity and the politics of oppression. By Elaine Graham-Leigh (Counterfire, March 1, 2018). “Our critique of identity politics is not about whether or not one fights against oppression and supports the struggle of the oppressed. It is about how one understands the roots of that oppression and the strategic and tactical positions that result from different analyses.”
Are identity politics the answer? (pdf). By Sean Carroll (Irish Marxist Review, Vol.6, No.18, 2017, p.23-32). “For the purpose of this article I will start by looking at the historical background to the politics of identity which was prevalent on the left in the 1980s and 1990s and then discuss intersectionality and privilege theory which are much more popular today.”
The meritocratic myopia of Ta-Nehisi Coates. By August H. Nimtz (MR Online, November 17, 2017). “Like Trump, meritocratic liberals such as Coates have a class interest in obscuring their class privileges, as it allows them to evade any critical examination of the system that sustains them. Rather than bite that hand, they blame the victims—’the carnage’—of that very same system.”
Unite and fight? Marxism and identity politics. By Sherry Wolf (International Socialist Review, Issue 98, Fall 2015, p.119-131). “At its core, this is a talk about whether solidarity across gender, race, ethnic, and other lines is both possible and desirable. If those who advocate the politics of identity are right, then the prospects for unity are at best slim, and unity is neither likely nor desirable.”
What’s wrong with privilege theory? By Esme Choonara and Yuri Prasad (International Socialism, Issue 142, Spring 2014, p.83-110). “This article takes a critical look at some of the theories of privilege and concepts of intersectionality (the interaction of multiple oppressions) that increasingly dominate battles for liberation.”
Theories of difference: the Subaltern project examined. By Talat Ahmed (International Socialism, Issue 144, Autumn 2014, p.165-176). Review of Vivek Chibber, Postcolonial Theory and the Specter of Capital (Verso, 2013, 320 p.): “Chibber has provided a valuable historical survey of the Subaltern intellectual agenda from its promising beginning to this ignoble endpoint, and it deserves to be widely read and critically discussed by all those seeking a way out of the theoretical impasse represented by postcolonial theory.”
See also:
Marxism and the future of postcolonial theory. Review by Pranav Jani (International Socialist Review, Issue 92, Spring 2014, p.105-121).
Postkolonialismens teoretiske blindspor. Av Vivek Chibber (Le Monde Diplomatique: Norges mest internasjonale avis, mai 2014).
Marxism, postcolonial studies, and the tasks of radical theory (International Socialist Review, Issue 89, May 2013). Vivek Chibber interviewed by Jason Farbman.
How does the Subaltern speak? (Jacobin, April 21, 2013). An interview with Vivek Chipper by Jonah Birch.
Book Review Symposium: Postcolonial Theory and the Specter of Capital by Vivek Chipper (Journal of World-Systems Research, Vol.20, No.2, Summer 2014, p.281-317).
Is there a white skin privilege? (SocialistWorker.org, January 14, 2014). “The idea that all whites are privileged at the expense of Blacks is popular on the left – but Bill Mullen makes the case that Marxism offers a better understanding of racism.” With What else to read: “Socialist Worker readers debated the analysis of white skin privilege and how to organize the anti-racist struggle in a series of contributions.” Scroll down.
Is there a white skin privilege? (SocialistWorker.org, October 30, 2013). “The idea that all whites are privileged at the expense of Blacks is popular on the left – but Bill Mullen makes the case that Marxism offers a better understanding of racism.” With links to 11 further contributions.
Readings on postmodernism and identity (pdf). Compiled by Ulli Diemer (Connexions.org, 2009, 116 p.). “A selection of critical articles on post-modernism, identity politics, and related topics.” With articles, among others, by Noam Chomsky, Loren Goldner, Irfan Habib, Kenan Malik and Ellen Meiksins Wood.
Marxism and identity politics (SocialistWorker.org, July 11, 2008). “ spoke at Socialism 2008 on how to understand oppression and identity politics.”
The politics of identity. By Sharon Smith (International Socialist Review, Issue 57, January-February 2008). “The bulk of this article is a critique of the theory behind what is known in academic and left circles as ‘identity politics’—the idea that only those experiencing a particular form of oppression can either define it or fight against it—counterposing to it a Marxist analysis.”
Identity politics and the Left. By Eric Hobsbawm (New Left Review, Issue 217, May-June 1996, p.38-47; online at Amiel Melburn Trust Internet Archive). “Since the 1970s there has been a tendency – an increasing tendency – to see the Left essentially as a coalition of minority groups and interests: of race, gender, sexual or other cultural preferences and lifestyles …”
Mistaken identity – or can identity politics liberate the oppressed? By Sharon Smith (International Socialism, Issue 62, Spring 1994, p.3-50). “In this article I aim to show i) how the ideas of ‘autonomy’ gained a following on the left commensurate with the decline of the level of class struggle …; ii) what is wrong with the theoretical basis of identity politics; and iii) why the politics of identity is not an effective strategy for fighting against oppression …”
The ‘politically correct’ controversy. By John Molyneux (International Socialism, Issue 61, Winter 1993, p.43-74). “He damns the hyprocrisy of the right but shows that socialists should not be uncritical supporters of what is done in the name of political correctness.”
Bookwatch: racism and resistance. By Brian Richardson (International Socialism, Issue 168, Autumn 2020, p.193-203). “This article will review some of the publications that have caught the popular mood, reflecting on their strengths and weaknesses.”
![Hugo Gellert (May 3, 1892 – December 9, 1985) var en ungarnsk-Amerikansk illustrator and murmaler. Han illustrerede en udgave af Karl Marx' 'Capital' in Lithographs, New York 1934. De valgte illustrationerer er fra side 3 Primary Accumulation, Secret of primary accumulation [2 of 3], side 14. PRIMARY ACCUMULATION, Origin of the industrial capitalist [1/5] og side 19. PRIMARY ACCUMULATION, Historical tendency of capitalist accumulation](https://socbib.dk/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Kapitalen_Hugo_Gellert-200x140.jpg.webp)