Now, of course, no human being is limited to one identity which means that the identity
politics that people usually mean like a black identity, a trans identity, a female identity,
a Latinx identity is a really reductionist kind of identity. It only reduces a person to one aspect
of their complicated life. When I thought about all the aspects of identity just in one person,
I thought of myself. I have an identity as a woman, an identity as a socialist,
an identity as part of this planet and this world. I have all of these identities,
as well as a shared human identity with every other human on Earth.
Now, what has happened. Since the FBI and the CIA under Gloria Steinem tried to create an identity
for women as women pushing our rights for gender reform, but no other economic and social rights,
and creating a movement of equality within a system of ever more grotesque inequality,
rather than a movement of equality for all men and women together as equals.
And the way that's been accomplished in some
some ways, unfortunately is by making men the enemies of women:
making the movement a gender-only movement rather than a movement of women in solidarity.
And basically the CIA and the FBI wanted to fracture the movement, because they were afraid
of a class-based movement. When Martin Luther King [Jr] started saying the problem is not just
a problem of race- it's a problem of an underclass and we need to unite- he was shot. When Malcolm X
said the same thing, he was shot. There are a lot of people who don't want to see that class unity
and that identity we all have as people, who need each other to make changes so
that there are no arbitrary barriers between us. And that's the identity
politics that I want to have. Not the fractured identity politics,
not the contest of who's more victimized against those who are a little less victimized- not that
understanding one's victimization isn't sometimes really helpful-
but a movement of understanding that we all need each other. We all need to fight for a
society in which arbitrary divisions of class, race, gender, ethnicity, religion or anything
else doesn't separate us from our common need to have a peaceful and prosperous life. In that way,
under those conditions, the only identity that you could claim besides your human identity is
white supremacy, which ranges from wanting to kill people who are different from you to just thinking
of them as inferior because they're different. I want to reclaim identity politics for us
with a human identity that unites us around all those ways that we need to transform America:
to make it a kind, safe place to live for everyone, regardless of gender, race,
sexual preference, ethnicity or anything else. That's all for today. I hope you can rethink
identity politics with me and want to claim the identity as a human connected to other humans,
without putting barriers between us. Which, of course, doesn't stop movements like Black Lives
Matter to call attention to a particular identity that's been victimized, but within the context
that we're all victimized by the unkindness, and cruelty, and exploitation of capitalism.