There is probably nothing more theoretically banal & politically reactionary than the rubbish about “identity politics.” It doesn’t make a damn bit of sense in the real world where human beings work out their destinies. How does one apply the theoretics of identity politics in the ethnic cleansing of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar? After all, it is Rohingya who are targeted so mercilessly; not anyone else with another identity. In fact, they are even required to deny & renounce their own identity & call themselves Bengali. How is their identity not relevant?
How does a woman deny her identity so she can avoid violence? Or a Black or Latino or Native American deny their identity so they won’t be brutalized or discriminated against in the US? How will a Muslim get past US immigration authorities or avoid pogroms in India? How will Dalits & other oppressed castes avoid persecution & violence from Brahmins? How will African, Iraqi, Bangladeshi, Afghan, Haitian, Mexican refugees pass as white people so they can clear the borders of Europe, Australia, & the US?
What is the identity that the oppressed are supposed to renounce? Their ethnicity, skin color, clothing, language, culture, poetry, music, history? Or just anything that makes them different from white people or men? Those who get on their high horse against identity politics are privileged, mostly obtuse white people who have no idea what price people are willing to pay to demand respect for who they are & will not bend the knee to a false unity based on denying who they are & who refuse to abandon the struggle against persecution.