By Ceoli Jacoby

On Tuesday, the University of Maryland Alumni Association hosted a panel about identity politics as part of its UMDemocracy series, aiming to spread resources and information pertaining to the 2020 election among Terps past and present. 

“Identity politics” is the tendency for people of a particular race, religion, or social background to align ideologically with one another. For these groups, a shared history of injustice is often more important than the politics of a certain party.

According to alumnus Lauren Norris, The panel brought in about 70 live attendees and has since been viewed by a dozen more on Youtube.

Dr. Jason Nichols, a senior lecturer in the university’s department of African American studies, moderated the panel. In Nichols’ view, the defeat of Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election thrust the concept of identity politics to the forefront of a nationwide reckoning with America’s failed promise of equal opportunity. 

One the one hand, many marginalized people maintain that diversity in politics is key to ensuring that the needs of specific communities are met. On the other, some folks argue that the policies and practices of candidates for public office are of greater importance than the demographic groups to which they belong.

While the hot-button issue spurred disagreement between even those on the same side of the political aisle, there is one thing Nichols said that most agreed upon: the centering of Clinton’s campaign on the concerns of minority groups hurt her at the polls, and the election of Donald Trump only fanned the existing flames of division.

“Words like ‘woke’ that once signified knowledge and awareness of how structures function to recreate racial and ethnic and gender hierarchies quickly became pejoratives,” Nichols said. “Identity blindness, a concept that grew out of the conservative discourse of the 1980’s, began to reemerge…All Lives Matter would become a retort to any desire to prioritize the victims of state-sanctioned violence.”

Opponents of identity politics continue to push for a culture that recognizes who a person is over what a person is. However, proponents say that their intersecting identities play a large role in how they are perceived by society. Accordingly, to be blind to those identities would be to ignore significant drivers in the development of their ideals and worldviews.

U.S. Rep. Anthony Brown during the panel compared his responsibilities as a Black elected official to those of a veteran who holds public office. 

While a veteran who holds public office is accountable to all of the citizens in his or her district, he or she could also be expected to lead the charge against issues that disproportionately affect those who have served in the military  – such as homelessness and mental illness.

“So is true for African American elected officials,” Brown said. “We represent our broad constituency, but we have to champion the issues that are unique – or certainly acute – in the Black community. ” 

S. Delegate Alonzo Washington, D-22, contended that it took the death of George Floyd at the hands of the Minneapolis Police Department this summer for many of his colleagues to finally “get it.”

“It was a very difficult conversation to have, but one that needed to happen,” he said. “Because in many instances, [white elected officials] were the blockade to moving some of our real issues, like dismantling the school-to-prison pipeline and voter access and things of that nature. It’s been hard for them to finally realize that our Black people and our Black issues matter.”

Aside from the position that people of a particular background are more likely to intimately understand and actively work against the challenges that face their communities, there is the argument of representation — if a person grows up seeing those who look like them in positions of power, they will feel better equipped to lead.

Clinton’s 2016 candidacy certainly seems to have had this effect on the demographic makeup of Congress: a record 117 women were elected in 2018, up from 89 in 2016. 

Kamala Harris’ run for vice president has also been a particularly historic one. For many Southeast Asian women, Black women and first-generation Americans, Harris is the first politician in which they can truly see themselves.

S. Delegate Wanika Fisher, D-47, the daughter of a Nigerian man and an Indian woman from South Africa, says that she is “constantly dealing with all of [her] intersectionalities.”

“Finally I don’t have to explain what I am all of the time. I just go, ‘I’m the same as Kamala Harris,’” she said.

Featured Image: Nichols asks panelists to summarize what identity politics mean to them. 

Photo by Ceoli Jacoby