Wokeness Not Only Divides, It Distracts
The dictum stay woke first came into vogue when it was used by the Black Lives Matter movement in 2014, as an instruction to people of colour to wake up…
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Posts by tag
Identity Politics
27 posts
Intersectionality in India: Caste-Based Identity Politics
A system of hereditary and hierarchical caste-based stratification still governs political, social and economic life in India, over seventy years after Independence. According to a 2018 study, the Dalits, the…
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We Can’t Just Oppose Racism: We Must Transcend Race
What does it mean for a racially designated person to no longer accept that designation? I didn’t fully realise the significance of being coded as black until I was thirteen.…
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It’s Not Socialism, It’s Clientelism
Socialism has enjoyed something of a renaissance in the US over the past few years, with the rise of populist politicians like Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who proudly embrace…
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Is There A New Third Way?
When Senator Bernie Sanders recently dropped out of the 2020 presidential race, many wondered how, despite his initial surge in the polls, he was defeated by Joe Biden, a gaffe-prone…
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The Left is Having an Identity Crisis
The Left is in crisis. We no longer present a cohesive movement, and we no longer form coherent political parties. We are a fractured and ill-defined mess, our goals are…
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How the Collectivist Right Won the Battle of Ideas
Left-wing critics of Trump and of the worldwide resurgence of the populist right have been throwing the word fascist around liberally in recent years. But many people have missed the…
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Francis Fukuyama’s “Identity”: A Book Review
Francis Fukuyama is one of those authors who are often invoked and far less frequently read. This has to do, at least in part, with the controversy surrounding his first…
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Wollstonecraft’s Dilemma: Identity Politics and Feminism
Although the ideology of identity politics remains hegemonic in the academy and in many social institutions, a growing—and arguably necessary—body of critique has been emerging. These critiques have emanated both…
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A Veteran in College: The Problem With Identity Theories
Cultural Studies in the Military My fifteen-year career in the military seemed to last an eternity. At twenty years old, I found myself involved in the initial push into Iraq…
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Irshad Manji’s “Don’t Label Me”: Book Review
It’s hard to know how to respond to the culture wars, which are raging all around us. Of course, we all know how we should respond: by practicing mutual respect,…
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The Politics of Slavoj Zizek
Slavoj Žižek recently debated Jordan Peterson, in a conflict that was somewhat dramatically hailed as the intellectual duel of the century. One of the most amusing moments came when Peterson…
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Racializing Environmentalism
A new study claims that whites disproportionately harm blacks and other minorities in regards to the pollution they emit relative to the pollution they consume. This is a pristine example…
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Literature, Authenticity and Race
As Cathy Young observes in a recent essay, the media has not given J. D. Salinger a warm welcome into his centennial year. Two days before the celebrated author’s birthday, the Washington…
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Rahaf Mohammad and the Need for Universal Human Rights
Rahaf Mohammed’s epic escape and rescue have once again demonstrated the pressing need for humanity to join together to protect human rights irrespective of caste, color or creed. The incident…
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Identity: Knowing What It’s Like To Be Something
Like most people who hang around on social media, now and again I come across an exchange which goes like this: “I think such-and-such,” “How dare you think such-and-such? You’re not…
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A Persian Popinjay. A Review of the Film Bohemian Rhapsody
Warning: contains spoilers. The Demands of the Narrative The film opens with a close-up of star Rami Malek’s eye, a circlet of pale blue-grey iris clearly visible around a wide…
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The Case For Identity Politics
Identity politics has become the punching bag of liberals and conservatives alike, despite being rather ill defined. It is neither the world-ending menace that conservatives posit, nor the monolith that…
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