{"id":23589,"date":"2020-11-18T10:21:25","date_gmt":"2020-11-18T15:21:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/?p=23589"},"modified":"2020-11-18T10:21:26","modified_gmt":"2020-11-18T15:21:26","slug":"some-notes-on-identity-from-a-civic-perspective","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/?p=23589","title":{"rendered":"some notes on identity from a civic perspective"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In a course on Civic Studies, we recently began a unit on identity. The first readings were the biblical Book of Nehemiah<\/em>; Audre Lorde, \u201cThe Master\u2019s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master\u2019s House; and \u201dSteve Biko, “Black Consciousness and the Quest for a True Humanity.” Here are some notes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The overall civic question is: \u201cWhat should we do?\u201d  An identity is an answer to the question: \u201cWho am I<\/em>?\u201d (Or, \u201cWho is he\/she\/they?\u201d) For instance, Lorde self-identified<\/a> as \u201cblack, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How are these two questions related?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. You must consider who you are<\/em> in order to figure out what \u201cwe\u201d you are part of.<\/li>
  2. Sometimes the \u201cwe\u201d is defined badly, and that is the civic problem. People are excluded unjustly or included against their will.<\/li>
  3. Even when the \u201cwe\u201d is right, it may encompass differences of identity that create or reinforce injustices.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    2. When discussing Elinor Ostrom and others in the first segment of our course, we were primarily focused on interests<\/em>. The main solutions included various forms of negotiation and management. When discussing J\u00fcrgen Habermas and others in that segment of the course, we were primarily focused on opinions<\/em>. The main solutions involved various forms of dialogue, deliberation, and communication. Now we turn to identities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    3. Interests, opinions, and identities are interconnected but are not the same. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    1. Interest: \u201cI want\/need \u2026\u201d<\/li>
    2. Opinion: \u201cWe should \u2026\u201d<\/li>
    3. Identity: \u201cSpeaking as a \u2026\u201d<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

      When interests conflict, they can be negotiated, and it is sometimes possible to design and maintain systems to manage interests fairly. When opinions conflict, they can be discussed, and well-structured conversations may (sometimes) convince individuals to converge on the same opinions. When identities clash, it is not clear that individuals should<\/em> negotiate, compromise, or give reasons for their differences. But it can be controversial whether a given characteristic, such as adhering to a religion, constitutes an interest, an opinion, an identity, or more than one of these. Disagreements about such questions can lead to disputes about whether individuals should be open to negotiation and responsive to arguments, or not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      4. It can be problematic to talk about identity in general terms. Some identities are vastly more significant to social justice than others. For instance, racism is the USA is not just an example of an identity-difference. You can imagine two random groups that don\u2019t happen to like each other and who demonstrate bias or division. That is a challenge, but it is not a good description of the differences that matter to our assigned authors. For Biko: conquest, colonialism, apartheid. For Lorde: 400 years of slavery, terror, and subjugation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      5. Each form of identity has a unique history. It may also have a particular logic<\/em>. For instance, it\u2019s possible to imagine a society with significant racial diversity that is also equitable. It is not possible to imagine a society with an upper class and a lower class that are equal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      6. Nevertheless, we can also gain some insights into important differences among identities by developing general theories of identity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      7. Two general theories are worth contrasting:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      1. When two groups of people act and think very differently and have little contact, a powerful identity distinction emerges that can be hard to bridge.<\/li>
      2. When people are very similar, intimately connected, and liable to mix or exchange places, there is a powerful incentive to erect and insist on identity distinctions.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

        Examples of (a): Europeans encountering indigenous peoples, and vice-versa. Examples of (b): Modern antisemitism in Europe or the invention of race in 17th century Virginia. My understanding of the 17th-century story is that slavery came first; racism followed. The first rationale for enslaving people from Africa was religious: Christians could enslave “heathens.” But once the enslaved people converted, a different rationale was necessary. For a few decades, colonists tried the idea of “hereditary heathenism” (Goetz 2012)<\/a>, but that was incompatible with core Christian doctrine. So they invented, or re-invented, race. Since then, whites and African Americans have been in constant and intense interaction and have exhibited profound similarities. White privilege is a “common pool resource” in the specific sense that it benefits all white people, whether they want it or not, yet any of us can undermine it by promotion equity. All common pool resources are fragile, and it has taken concerted, sustained effort to maintain white supremacy in the face of actual similarities and actual interactions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        8. A synthesis? Identity distinctions are made<\/em> by people in response to incentives created by institutions (such as states and markets), power differentials, network ties, and path-dependence, among other factors (Wimmer 2008<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        9. Identities are made, but it does not follow that they are easily unmade. They become powerful realities. E.g., modern Americans racially classify a photo of a face in less than one tenth of a second and form affective reactions to that classification (Kubota & Ito, 2007<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        10. Power influences how identities are created, but it does not follow that identity-creation is necessarily bad<\/em>. It can be creative and empowering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        Lorde: \u201cAdvocating the mere tolerance of difference between women is the grossest reformism. It is a total denial of the creative function of difference in our lives. Difference must be not merely tolerated, but seen as a fund of necessary polarities between which our creativity can spark like a dialectic.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

        11. Questions from the readings:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        1. Do identity distinctions and boundaries enable collective action? If so, can we solve collective action problems without perpetuating unjust exclusions?<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

          The Nehemiah story is about building a common pool resource and<\/em> excluding outsiders. (A city wall is a common pool resource. The Jerusamelites have strong social capital. They apply many of Ostrom\u2019s design principles, such as taking turns and enforcing the rules on the leaders) Must self-governance and exclusion go together?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

          1. When should we accentuate \u201cmany differences,\u201d and when should we look for \u201csolidarity\u201d?<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

            Lorde: \u201cIt is a particular academic arrogance to assume any discussion of feminist theory without examining our many differences, and without a significant input from poor women, Black and Third World women, and lesbians.\u201d Biko uses \u201cthe black man\u201d as a category that explicitly encompasses Zulus, Xhosas, Vendas, and South Africans of Indian origin, and implicitly includes black women. He discusses a \u201cstrong solidarity\u201d that allows Blacks to \u201crespond as a cohesive group.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            1. Who has what responsibility for learning and teaching about what?<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

              \u201cLet us talk more about ourselves and our struggles and less about whites\u201d (Biko). Asking oppressed peoples to educate their oppressors \u201cis an old and primary tool of all oppressors to keep the oppressed occupied with the master\u2019s concerns.\u201d For instance, to say that women of color must educate white women \u201cis a diversion and a tragic repetition of racist patriarchal thought\u201d (Lorde)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

              1. How radical a change is needed?<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

                Lorde: tolerance is \u201cthe grossest reformism.\u201d We need to \u201cseek new ways of being in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

                In a course on Civic Studies, we recently began a unit on identity. The first readings were the biblical Book of Nehemiah; Audre Lorde, \u201cThe Master\u2019s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master\u2019s House; and \u201dSteve Biko, “Black Consciousness and the Quest for a True Humanity.” Here are some notes. 1. The overall civic question is: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-civic-theory","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23589","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23589"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23589\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23653,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23589\/revisions\/23653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}