The Neoliberal Co-Optation of Identity Politics: Geo-Political Situatedness as a Decolonial Discussion Partner

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.13169/decohori.5.1.0101
• Pages: 101-130
• Published date: 01 January 2019
• Date: 01 January 2019
• Author: Jorge Juan Rodríguez V.

ISSN 2545-8728 / eISSN 2422-6343

horizontesdecoloniales

Part II/Parte II

Decolonial Interrogations/

Interrogaciones Decoloniales

Horizontes Decoloniales Volumen V.1 (2019): pp. 101–130

horizontes

decoloniales

ISSN 2545-8728

eISSN 2422-6343

Volumen V.1

2019

101

The Neoliberal Co-Optation of

Identity Politics

Geo-Political Situatedness as a

Decolonial Discussion Partner

Jorge Juan Rodríguez V.

Abstract in English

Responding to the 2016 United States Presidential election, this piece con-

tests that the popularly deployed phrase “identity politics” is not Identity

Politics as articulated by Black feminists of the Combahee River Collective

but is rather a neoliberal co-optation of Identity Politics. By situating

neoliberalism and the Black feminists that articulated Identity Politics as

historical contemporaries, the piece argues that as the former spread to

institutions like universities it co-opted, depoliticized, a-historicized, and

misappropriated the latter. The piece concludes by offering “Geo-Political

Situatedness” as a theoretical frame that undermines neoliberalism’s co-

optation of Identity Politics.

Key words: Neoliberalism, Identity Politics, Black feminism, Combahee

River Collective

Abstract in Spanish

Respondiendo a las elecciones presidenciales E.E.U.U. del 2016, este

proyecto argumenta que la frase “identity politics” en su uso popular no

es la Política de Identidad originalmente articulada por las feministas

Negras del Combahee River Collective pero es una cooptación neoliberal

de la Política de Identidad. Situando el neoliberalismo y las feministas

Negras que articularon la Política de Identidad como contemporáneos, este

proyecto sugiere que cuando el neoliberalismo se expandió a instituciones

como universidades pudo cooptar, de-politizar, mal-apropiar, y sacar de su

contexto histórico la Política de Identidad. El proyecto concluye ofreciendo

el concepto de “Geo-Political Situatedness” como un marco teórico que

debilita la cooptación neoliberal de la Política de Identidad.

Key words: Neoliberalismo, Política de Identidad, Feminismo Negro,

Combahee River Collective