[lbo-talk] My soul is made of uranium hexafluoride

[Joanna]

berber carpet bomb wrote:
> i guess what really irritates, joanna, is that you have all kinds of
> attitudes about identity politics, but you have never once shown yourself
> actually familiar with their writing 
>
> ...
> in other words, you act as if you came up with the critique that has led to
> developments like this book edited by Anzaldua. And yet, *they* came up with
> it way before you ever made a post to this list. They were writing about it
> in the 80s for pete's sake.  and not one word of attribution is given them
> when you claim your criticisms. if you were familiar with the terrain, you
> wouldn't dare write like that.
>   
I have never claimed familiarity with the philosophers/activists of 
identity politics...except for reading all the big feminists of the 
sixties... I wonder too whether close acquaintance with academic writing 
is really needed to understand the phenomenon. After all, it permeates 
everything that has been written/experienced/articulated in the last 
thirty years.

My "critique" goes back to 1974 when I saw something like an emerging 
working class movement unwinding into many useless threads of identity. 
In 74 I was 20 and my critique was mostly a gut peasant-like feeling 
that identity politics was many kinds of Dead End. As it has proved to be.

I'd say more, but I couldn't parse your first para "..but that is 
precisely..." so I'll stop here.

Joanna