Description
Book SynopsisIdentity politics is a lightning rod in American society. To both its progressive supporters and conservative critics, it is seen as defining the agenda of the Left. Both sides are wrong. Identity politics is not a leftist project. Instead it enables the neoliberal political economy that has caused historic levels of inequality and triggered repression and mass incarceration to deal with the social wreckage. Identity politics is a form of biological essentialism, impeding morality built upon universal humanism and politics built upon solidarity.
Unlike the conservative assaults, this book avoids the trivial and silly pronouncements of identity politics (a term generally avoided in the work as loaded and pejorative). It challenges the following key principles of the Identity, Diversity, and Multiculturalism Program: Diversity as Justicethe most important struggle for justice today is increasing the representation throughout society of individuals from historically marginalize
Trade ReviewRichard Anderson-Connolly has given us a trenchant and controversial work that questions deeply held progressive beliefs and assumptions. Confronting the problems of economic inequality and the limits of identity politics in dealing with it should make his book required reading for activists and academics alike. -- Stephen Bronner, Rutgers University
Table of ContentsList of Tables and Figures
Introduction
Chapter 1: A Leftist Critique of Diversity as Justice
Chapter 2: A Model of Economic Inequality
Chapter 3: A Leftist Critique of Colorblindness as Racism
Chapter 4: A Leftist Critique of Race as Culture
Chapter 5: A Leftist Critique of Culture as Virtue
Chapter 6: The Choice: Identity, Diversity, and Multiculturalism or the Left?
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