The Neoliberal Co-Optation of Identity Politics: Geo-Political Situatedness as a Decolonial Discussion Partner. (1st January 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Rodríguez V., Jorge Juan
• Is Part Of: Horizontes decoloniales. Number 5(2019)
• Page Start: 101
• Page End: 130
• Publication Date: 2019-01-01
• Subjects: Religion and politics -- Periodicals; Postcolonial theology -- Periodicals; Postcolonial theology; Religion and politics; Periodicals; 201.72
• DOI: 10.13169/decohori.5.1.0101
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2422-6343

Abstract

Abstract in English: Responding to the 2016 United States Presidential election, this piece contests that the popularly deployed phrase "identity politics" is not Identity Politics as articulated by Black feminists of the Combahee River Collective but is rather a neoliberal co-optation of Identity Politics. By situating neoliberalism and the Black feminists that articulated Identity Politics as historical contemporaries, the piece argues that as the former spread to institutions like universities it co-opted, depoliticized, a-historicized, and misappropriated the latter. The piece concludes by offering "Geo-Political Situatedness" as a theoretical frame that undermines neoliberalism's co-optation of Identity Politics. Key words : Neoliberalism, Identity Politics, Black feminism, Combahee River Collective