The Danger of Identity Politics

In our readings we uncovered a long history of racial interactions within the space of Los Angeles. The post-war period and the Civil Rights movement introduced a new climate of racial violence as well as a new age of multiculturalism. However, as we allowed multiculturalism to pass through our discursive forms, the specter of racial discrimination has worked to create class differences within communities of color. Kurashige notices that while Latino, Asian and African-American communities have emerged as the inner-city majority, their progress has been undercut by the deep structural bases of racial inequality, which has been realized in our socio-economic structure (289) This new discrimination results in the disproportionate allocation of resources to benefit certain communities at the expense of others—specifically, racialized inner-city communities. Some organizations have mobilized previously marginalized groups against these forces by uncovering a wealth of common grievances that cut across race, nationality, and gender. However, the momentum created by this distinction has been weakened by the prevailing multiculturalist understanding.

Pursuant to dominant discourse, the 1992 LA riots were construed as an inter-ethnic conflict. The problem was, while there had been tensions created by the racial interactions between an inter-city majority and the growing migrant minority, the ethos of multiculturalism facilitated narrow ethnic attachments that concretized over previous years. This form of identity politics has been prominent since the 70s. Fear and frustration in response to rising global forces drives the individual to seek political efficacy in numbers. Consequently, in this discourse of multiculturalism, groups dynamics are perceived racially. From there, the racial conflagration makes more sense in terms of tensions within a shared racial space. During the riots, Korean shops were looted and razed because of a class-based resentment, not in terms of the casual consideration of racial tensions within minority neighborhoods. Beyond that, identity fractures the American polity. As we observed in the LA riots, affirmations of difference work against wide acceptance into the dominant discourse. Instead of being understood as a class riot, it has been portrayed as another race riot. This dilemma imparts greater significance on creating inter-ethnic narratives of unity, like Kurashige attempts to do in creating a historical narrative and how George Lipsitz does over his musings on bus rider culture.