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The politics of identity

Article in Daedalus · October 2006

DOI: 10.1162/daed.2006.135.4.15

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The Politics of Identity
Author(s): Kwame Anthony Appiah
Reviewed work(s):
Source: Daedalus, Vol. 135, No. 4, On Identity (Fall, 2006), pp. 15-22
Published by: The MIT Press on behalf of American Academy of Arts & Sciences
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Kwame Anthony Appiah

The politics of identity

1 am never quite sure what people mean nothing to do with the government.'
when they talk about 'identity politics.' You might wonder how someone who
com
Usually, though, they bring it up to said that could think that civil marriage
about someone else. One's own should not be open to gays. Isn't that
plain
political preoccupations
are
just, well, straight identity politics ?
politics. Identity politics is what other In short,
I think that what Sir John
people do. so
Harrington sagely said of treason
Here's one example: When
someone is largely true of identity politics : it
in France suggested gay marriage was never seems to prosper it
only because
a com has largely won the political
good idea, many French people stage.
that this was another in But I think there is away of explain
plained just
stance of American-style identity poli ing why identity matters. 'Identity'
tics. (In France, as you know, 'Ameri may not be the best word for bringing
is en effet a synonym for 'bad.') roles
can-style' together the gender, class, race,
on so on
'Why should lesgays insist special nationality, and play in our lives,
treatment?' So the French legislature but it is the one we use. One problem
created the Pacte Civil de Solidarit? : it can
with 'identity' suggest that ev
(PACs), whose point is exactly that mar eryone of a certain identity is in some
riage is open to any two citizens. 'Much strong
sense idem, i.e., the same, when,
better,' those people said. 'Sexuality has in fact, most groups are
internally quite
heterogeneous, partly because each of us
Kwame Anthony Appiah, a Fellow of theAmer has many identities. The right response
ican since 1995, is Laurance S. Rocke to this problem is just to be aware of the
Academy
risk.
feller University Professor of Philosophy and the
But another difficulty with social iden
University Centerfor Human Values at Prince
ton University. His publications include "Asser tity is that the very diversity of that list
tion and Conditionals" (1985), "InMy Fath can leave you whether all
wondering
er'sHouse :Africa in thePhilosophy of Culture" these identities have anything interest
in common. What did it mean when
(1992), "TheEthics of Identity" (2005), and, ing
most recently, "Cosmopolitanism :Ethics in a I added 'and so on' just now to a list that
ran from
World of Strangers" (2006). gender to nationality?1 Well,

? 2006 by the American Academy of Arts i I'm reminded of Jorge Luis

Borges's famous
& Sciences example of a list he claimed to have found in

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Kwame
you can only answer that sort of ques of herself as an X in the relevant way, she
Anthony tion by proposing a as an X, which means she some
Appiah theory of identity. identifies
on times feels like or acts as an X. For exam
: is in Rome. He sees a
identity
IVJLy
own account of social identities ple Joe Kansas
one of
is nominalist because I explain how the lost-looking couple and hears
identities work by talking about the la them say, with an American accent,
- - Iwish I knew
the route to
bels the names for them. Take some 'Gee, honey,
X. My proposal the Capitol.' Since Joe's just come from
arbitrary identity-label
is :X will have criteria of ascription ; there, he goes up to them and tells them
some will as X's ; some the way. Why? Because he's an Ameri
people identify
can and so are to
people will treat others
as X's ;and X they. In other words,
an Xis to in
will have norms of identification. feel like respond affectively
: away that on your as
Ascription The criteria of ascription depends identity
an X. You may feel a fel
for X are the properties on the basis of proud of Mary,
which we sort people into those we do low Englishwoman, say, who has just
and those we don't call X's. These crite scaled Everest. Politicians mobilize this
ria need not be the same for everyone. sort of feeling all the time, when they
Indeed, people will on exact can - more scope then for a politiciza
rarely agree
must have. Here tion of identities.
lywhich properties X's
is scope for one kind of identity politics : Treatment: Finally, to treat someone
Are F-to-M transgender as an X is to do to her because
people men? something
Are Muslims she is an X. When Joe tells those lost tour
really French? This form
of identity politics involves negotiation ists the way to the Capitol, he's helping

(not necessarily by way of the state) of them, in part, 'because they're Ameri
the boundaries of various groups. At cans.' Kindness of this sort is a common
the same time, this isn't just amatter form of treatment directed toward fel
of what people say about you, or wheth low in-group members. Unkindness is
er : itmay affect what re an form of treatment
they're polite equally frequent
sources you have access to. If being a de directed toward out-group members.
vout Muslim is inconsistent with being Here is room for politics, once more, as
French, you might not be able to go to a to use the to en
people try government
state school with your hijab on. force their likes and dislikes. And the
: mere classifica can be very serious :think of
Identification By itself, politics
tion does not produce what Imean by 'a the struggle against apartheid in South
social identity.' What makes a classifica Africa.
tion a relevant social identity is not just Norms :Identities are
of identification
that some people are called X's but also useful, in part, because once we ascribe
an someone we can often
that being an X figures in their thoughts, identity to
and acts. When a person thinks make predictions about her behavior on
feelings,
that basis. This is not just because the
criteria of ascription entail that mem
an ancient Chinese It begins : bers of the group have, or tend to have,
encyclopedia.
"(a) those that belong to the Emperor, (b) certain properties. It's also because so
embalmed ones, (c) those that are trained, cial identities are associated with norms
(d) suckling pigs, (e) mermaids,..." and ends
of behavior for X's. People don't only do
with "(n) those that resemble flies from a dis
it mean to add 'and so on'
and avoid doing things because they're
tance." What would
here? X's; there are things that, as X's, they

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 was. The politics
ought and ought not to do. The 'ought' 'There it is,' Carlyle's point 'We'd
here iswhat a philosopher would call a better deal with it.' of identity
- to deal with
general practical ought the ordinary But ifwe're going identi
some one. Here to ask how large a part
ought, not special moral ty, it's reasonable
are some of the type of norms these identities should play in our politi
examples
I have in mind. Negatively: men cal lives, whether we take politics in the
ought
not to wear dresses men narrow sense of our
;gay ought not dealings with the
to fall in love with women ;blacks ought state, or, more broadly, as our dealings,
not to embarrass the race Muslims
; in social life, with one another.
men
ought not to eat pork. Positively:
to open doors for women ;gay lo answer that question it helps to
ought
come out; blacks
people ought to ought begin not with
politics, not even with
to support affirmative action; Muslims social life directly, but with the 'ethical
ought to make the Hajj. life' of individuals. By 'ethics,' I
mean
To say these norms exist isn't to en like what whoever
something put the
dorse them. The existence of a norm label Nichomachean Ethics on that ancient
that X's ought to A amounts only to its book meant
- by it. (Apparently, it proba
and widely un a
Ethics is reflection
being widely thought bly wasn't Aristotle.)
derstood to be thought - that X's ought on what itmeans for human lives to go
to A. well, for us to have eudaimonia. (This is
Aristotle's word, perhaps best translated
JL/et me underscore at once how wide as
'flourishing.') Ethics, in this sense,
a range of kinds of
people fit the gener has important connections with morali
al rubric I have laid out. This story an ty, which Ronald Dworkin taught
me to
swers the questions :
what as :Eth
things 'like' distinguish from ethics follows
race, ethnicity, class are what
; it ics, he said, "includes convictions about
gender,
means to say 'gender, nationality, and so which kinds of lives are good or bad for
on/ We can now add, for example, pro a person to lead, and
morality includes
fessional identities (lawyer, doctor, jour about how a person should
principles
nalist, philosopher) ;vocations (artist, treat other people."2
composer, novelist) ;affiliations, formal Each of us has a life to live. We face
and informal (Man. U. fan, jazz aficio many moral demands, but they leave us
nado, Conservative, Catholic, Mason); many options. We mustn't be cruel or
and other more airy labels (dandy, con dishonest, for example, but we can still
servative, cosmopolitan). There are also live in many ways without these vices.
that are an obvious exten Of course, all of us also have constraints
relationships
sion of the general rubric :you can be of historical circumstances and physical
X's father and identify as such, or treat and mental endowments : Iwas born in
someone as X's dad. Fatherhood has to the wrong to be a Yoruba Oba
family
norms -
things dads ought to do. and with the wrong body for mother
If this iswhat identities are, it appears hood; I am too short to be a successful
silly to be either 'fer' or 'agin' them. Ei
2 Ronald
ther posture calls to mind the full-heart Dworkin, Sovereign Virtue (Cam
Mass. :Harvard Press, 2000),
ed avowal of the American bridge, University
transcenden 1. Note
485, fn. that Dworkin's definition allows
talist Margaret Fuller, "I accept the uni that the ethical subsume the moral. It
" might
verse ! - and Thomas
Carlyle's famously might be best to lead a life inwhich you treat
robust "Gad! She'd better!" others as should be treated.
rejoinder, they

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Kwame .based on the individual
professional basketball player and insuf union.. wants
Anthony to a concert pianist.
Appiah ficiently musical be and capacities of its members, that each
on But even when we have taken these is enabled to participate in the rich col
identity things into account, each human life be lective resources of the others."3 Liber
gins with many possibilities. Everybody als realize that we need other people :re
- - a
has or, at least, should have great spect for individuality is not an endorse
variety of decisions to make in shaping a ment of individualism.
life. And a liberal, like me,
philosophical
believes these choices belong, in the end, JLou might object that I count too many
to the person whose life it is. as social identities. But the fact
things
This means at least two things. First, that my account includes things we
the standard we decide wheth
by which don't normally think of as social iden
er I'm is, in part, set by aims tities is actually an advantage. Because
flourishing
I define for myself. Second, provided I these other identities are important, as
give others their moral due, the job of the usual social identities are, in our
managing my life ismine. Thoughtful ethical lives. Humboldt, after the pas
friends, benevolent sages, and anxious sage I just quoted, gives as his first exam
relatives rightly offer advice as to how ("the union of the sexes"),
ple marriage
to proceed. But it ought to be advice, not and then drifts perilously close to dis
coercion. And, just as private coercion is
cussing homosexual
relationships, too.4
wrong, it is also wrong when undertak in short, is one of those rela
'Spouse,'
en governments interested in the per tional words, like 'father,' that fit the
by
fection of their citizens. In other words, model.
once I have done my
duty, the shaping of And it's important to put the social
my life is up to me. identities we normally talk about in the
What John Stuart Mill taught us to context of all these others, because the
call individuality is one term for this feature all from the
they share, point of
task. But our isn't pro view of ethics, is that people make use
individuality
duced in a vacuum; rather, the available of them in seeking eudaimonia.
social forms and, of course, our interac a diverse range
Why do we have such
tions with others help shape it. Chapter of social identities and relations? One
3 of On Liberty ("On individuality as one answer, an etiological one, speaks to our
of the elements of well-being") is the evolution as a social for
species designed
classic English formulation of this no
tion of individuality; but, as Mill freely von Humboldt, The Limits of State
3Wilhelm
there, his own Action, ed. J.W. Burrow :Cam
acknowledged thinking (Cambridge
about these matters had been profound bridge University Press, 1969), 9. Humboldt's
in 1891 -1892, was not
an von essay, though written
ly shaped by essay of Wilhelm in a fairly complete form until
first published
Humboldt, written in the 1790s, and
1852. See the editor's introduction, vii.
known to us now as The Limits of State
Action. (It's a good thing that's how we 4 That's perhaps
one reason he didn't publish
know it: the German title was actually the essay himself, leaving
it to his brother Al
exander to Another
Ideen zu einem Versuch die Grenzen der publish posthumously.
was that suggesting limits on the proba
state
Wirksamkeit des Staats zu bestimmen.) In
so
bly wasn't popular with Friedrich Willhelm,
Chapter 2, "Of the individual man, and King of Prussia, nephew of Frederick the Great
the highest ends of his existence," Hum - come
who, to think of it, have liked
might
boldt wrote that it is "through a social the gay part.

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 the game of coalition building in search a corresponding diversity in their modes The politics
of food, mates, and protection. This is of life, they neither obtain their fair share of identity
we have the sort of in-group soli of happiness, nor grow up to the mental,
why
darities and out-group antagonisms that moral, and aesthetic statures of which
social psychologists have been exploring their nature is capable.5
for the last half century.
But from the point of view of a crea
X hilosophers have written a
ture with that psychology, there is good deal
about one way in which social
we answer: recently
another, equally persuasive
identities have figured in politics, name
use identities to construct our human
lives. For we make our lives as men and ly in what Hegelian language labels the

'politics of recognition.' The responses

as women, as Yanks and as Brits, as Cath
of other people a crucial
olics and as Jews we ; make them as phi obviously play
role in shaping one's sense of who one
and as novelists; we make
losophers is. As Charles
them as fathers and as daughters. Iden Taylor points out, this pro
cess
begins in intimate life : "On the in
tities are a central resource in this pro
- timate level, we can see how much an
cess.
Morality by which Imean what
we owe to one another - is also part of original identity needs and is vulnerable
to the recognition or withheld
the scaffolding on which we make that given by
significant others." Relationships, he
construction. So are various projects
says, are "crucial because cru
that we voluntarily undertake :
Voltaire's they are
cibles of inwardly generated identity."6
garden at Ferney shaped the last years of But that's
his life. (He really meant what he said at just the beginning. Our
identities don't depend on interactions
the end of Candide.)
in intimate life alone. Law, school,
Identities are so diverse and extensive
church, work, and many other institu
because, in the modern world, people
tions also shape us. However, this fact
need an enormous array of tools in mak doesn't tell us what role the state should
a life. The range of options sufficient
ing in the regulation of such acts of rec
for each of us isn't enough for us all. In play
ognition.
deed, people are making up new identi
Unfortunately, we live in societies that
ties all the time : 'gay' is basically four
have not treated certain individuals with
decades old; 'punk' is younger. As Mill
said in one of my favorite passages from respect because they were, for example,
:
women, homosexuals, blacks, Jews. Be
Chapter 3 of On Liberty cause our identities are
'dialogically'
If itwere only that people have diversi shaped,
as
Taylor describes it, people
ties of taste, that is reason enough for not who have these characteristics find them
- - to
attempting to shape them all after one central often negatively central
model. But different persons also require
different conditions for their spiritual de 5 John Stuart Mill, On Liberty, in The Collected
no more Works of John Stuart Mill, vol. 18, ed. John M.
and can exist health
velopment;
Robson (Toronto : of Toronto Press,
University
ily in the same moral, than all the variety 1963-1991), 270.
of plants can exist in the same physical at
mosphere and climate. The same things 6 Charles
Taylor, Multiculturalism :
Examining
which are helps to one person towards the Politics of Recognition, ed. Amy Gutmann
:Princeton
the cultivation of his higher nature, are (Princeton, N.J. University Press,

hindrances to another.... unless there is

1994), 36. Cf. Axel Honneth, The Strugglefor Rec
Mass. :MIT Press, 1995).
ognition (Cambridge,

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Kwame their identities. The politics of recogni of contempt may be part of
pressions
Anthony tion starts when we grasp that this is who he or she is, and whose
Appiah rights of
on wrong. One form of healing pursued by free expression are presumably
ground
identity those who have these identities involves ed, at least in part, in the connection
seeing these collective identities not as between individuality and self-expres
sources and insult but as
of limitation sion. On the other, the oppressed indi
valuable parts of who they are. And since vidual, whose life can go best only if his
amodern ethics of authenticity (which or her is consistent with self
identity
goes back, roughly, to Romanticism) re respect. How, if at all, is the state to in
we
quires us to express who centrally tervene?
are, they move, next, to demanding so There are all sorts of
undoubtedly
ciety recognize them as women, homo things that might be done here : laws
sexuals, blacks, and Catholics, and do hate or verbal harassment
against speech
the cultural work necessary to resist the in the workplace, state education for tol
stereotypes, to the insults, to erance, public celebrations of the heroes
challenge
lift the restrictions. of the oppressed. But it's important to
Since these old restrictions see that, while members of groups that
suggested
substantially negative norms of identi have experienced historical exclusion,
a life with or
fication, constructing dignity contempt, obloquy may indeed need
entails developing norms of new social in order to flourish,
positive practices
an are
identification instead. For example, what they seeking is not always recog
American homosexual after Stonewall nition. When blacks and women in the
and gay liberation takes the script of the United States campaigned for the vote,
closet, and works, in community with did so very often as blacks and as
they
others, to assemble a series of women. But they weren't asking for rec
positive
gay norms of identification. This new of their identity; were ask
ognition they
conception recodes being a faggot as ing, precisely, for the vote. Participation
of this sort may presuppose aminimal
being gay, which requires, among oth
er things, declining to stay in the closet. sense of recognition, but it entails a good
But if one is to be out of the closet in a deal more. Similarly, when the lesbian

society that deprives homosexuals of and gay movement in the United States
and then one pursues recognition, it does so
equal dignity respect, by asking
- to serve in
must constantly deal with assaults on for rights the military, to
-
one's dignity. Thus, the right to live as marry that would be worth having
an 'open' homosexual is not enough. It even if they came without recognition.
is not even enough to be treated with So not all political claims made in the

equal dignity despite being homosexual,

name of a group identity are primarily
for that would mean accepting that be claims for recognition.
homosexual counts to some In social life, too, it's equally impor
ing degree
against one's dignity. Instead, one must tant not to pursue a politics of recogni
ask to be respected as gay. tion too far. If recognition entails tak
This is a demand that others could ac ing notice of one's identity in social life,
cede to as individuals :I have no
objec then the development of strong norms
tion to calling social negotiations of this of identification can become not liber
sort a kind of micropolitics. But what but There is a kind of
ating oppressive.
can itmean for the state ? On one side identity politics that doesn't just permit
lies the individual oppressor whose ex but demands that I treat my skin color or

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 - The politics
my sexuality as central to my social life. George Bush hasn't done and probably
- of identity
Even though my 'race' or my sexuality won't do much in changing the law on
may be elements of my individuality, many of the so-called social issues that
someone who insists that I organize my evangelical Christians might be thought
life around these things is not an ally of to care about: stopping abortions, refus
Because identities are con to lesbian and gay rela
individuality. ing recognize
stituted in part by norms of identifica tionships in any way, and getting lots of
tion and by treatment, there is no clear mentions for God in public life. So what
line between recognition and a new kind George Bush says about abortion and
of oppression. homosexuality draws them to him, even
should someone else if
though they pick
V^ne reasonable criticism of identity they cared about policy rather than iden

politics consists, then, in pointing out tity.

- This kind of politics is actually a deep
that there's more than recognition of
ten much more - at feature of modern democratic life. We
stake when people
with and a
ask to be recognized. This resembles the identify people parties for
standard old-style Marxist criticism that variety of psychological reasons, includ
identities other than class-based ones ing identifications of this prepolitical

get in the way of seeing where our real sort, and then we're rather inclined to
interests lie. (There's some truth to this, support all the policies of that person
as a or party. This is, in part, because sensi
though good liberal, I don't think
our real interests are our economic ble people have better things to do than
just
ones.) But the here is not just that work out, all by themselves, what the
point
isn't all that matters. In proper balance should be between, say,
recognition
deed, because our identities our VAT and income taxes, but it's also be
shape
aims and our aims help fix our interests, cause like you may
people sufficiently
we can have real
so-to-speak identity in actually pick policies, when they do
terests as well. think about them, that you would pick,
in the United States if you had the time. So here, as inmany
Many people
voted for George Bush in part because places in life, it is sensible to practice a
they wanted someone who was, like cognitive division of labor. That used to
-
them, an evangelical Christian, in the work by creating political identities
White House. They voted as evangeli left, right, small-1 liberal, Labour, Tory,
cals, but this, at best, is very obliquely big-1 Liberal, Democrat, Republican,
a point about a Christian Democrat, and Marxist. In
recognition. Getting
wave from the White House may count many of the advanced democracies, par
as state I suppose, but most ty affiliations are less strong than
recognition, they
used to be, and other identities are bear
evangelicals sensibly don't hang their
on that rather more But that's in
self-respect wobbly peg. ing political weight.
Now I think that for many of them that part because many of the older party af
vote was amistake, since George Bush's filiations were class-based, and social
actual policies are bad for many of the class as defined by one's work has de
things that matter most to them - health clined in significance in people's iden
care, pension provision, tax policy, not tifications. In that very profound way a

losing their sons and in for new kind of identity politics, based in
daughters
eign adventures. And though he is, I be the declining social salience of class, has
lieve, a sincere evangelical Christian, been on the rise since the 1960s.

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Kwame X count seven different ways in which
Anthony I've said that you might
Appiah speak of 'iden
on tity politics.' (1) There are political con
identity flicts about who's in and who's out.
(2) Politicians can mobilize identities.
(3) States can treat people of distinct
identities differently. (4) People can pur
sue a
politics of recognition. (5) There
can be a social
micropolitics enforcing
norms of identification. (6) There are

inherently political identities like party

identifications. (7) social groups can
And
mobilize to respond collectively to all of
the above. Maybe it's not so surprising
then that, as I said at the start, I'm never
quite sure what people mean when they
talk about identity politics.

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