Mistaken identity

race and class in the age of Trump

No cover

Asad Haider: Mistaken identity (2018)

132 pages

English language

Published Jan. 16, 2018

ISBN:
978-1-78663-737-6
Copied ISBN!
OCLC Number:
1020294629

View on OpenLibrary

5 stars (1 review)

"The phenomenon of identity politics represents one of the primary impasses of the left, and has occasioned the reignition of frustrating debates between the partisans of race and class ad infinitum. In Mistaken Identity, Asad Haider reaches for a different approach - one rooted in the rich legacies of the black freedom struggle. Drawing from the words and deeds of black revolutionary theorists, he argues that identity politics is not synonymous with anti-racism, but instead amounts to the neutralisation of its movements. It marks a retreat from the crucial passage from identity to solidarity, and from individual recognition to collective struggle against an oppressive social structure. Mistaken Identity is a political and theoretical tour de force, an urgent call for alternative visions, languages, and practices against the white identity politics of right-wing populism. The idea of universal emancipation now seems old-fashioned and outmoded. But if we are attentive to the …

2 editions

Review of 'Mistaken identity' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Crucial, important, pithy.

Crystal-clear-eyed analysis of the consistent ruse of the capitalists to divide-and-conquer via identity: maintaining their exploitation by using race, gender, sexuality, and ethnicity to confuse and frustrate attempts to organize.

Reminds us that in oder to free ourselves, we must free all others thus imprisoned.

Exposes the shameful hypocrisy of neoliberal, double-speaking, bad-faith buffoons such as Clinton(s), Obama, and Blair.

Will be reading several more times, at least yearly, to remind myself of the key points.

Subjects

  • Politics and government
  • Political culture
  • Whites
  • Race relations
  • Identity politics
  • Social conditions
  • Political aspects
  • African Americans

Places

  • United States