A discussion on the adverse effects of group identity politics and mentality. Forming groups based on commonalities is one of the oldest human practices, from the time of hunter-gatherer societies to today. Once about survival in the wild, where people were divided based on age, health, gender, and skill, the globalization of the past few centuries made grouping a way to survive each other. Throughout history, in nearly all interactions between colonists and colonized, grouping became about protecting oneself, and one’s way of life, from the unknown. Humans seem to have evolved to favor this group association, with most groups adopting an ‘us versus them’ mentality that alienates the others. Group identity politics, formed by humans’ need to band together, now simply serves to divide society into endless unique fragments of monotony. Group identity politics have played a large role in American society throughout the nation’s history. From the very beginning, European colonists and the Native Americans were at odds with one another. Each saw the other as strange and, to some extent, dangerous, with the Europeans going so far as to force the Native Americans to relocate west into smaller and smaller territories and reservations. In order to adapt to these changes, many Native American tribes isolated themselves from the rest of America socially, likely due to extreme prejudice at the time, but further enhanced by the “us versus them” mentality from both the Native Americans’ and white Americans’ perspectives. Historically, the “other” has alienated them. African slaves forcefully brought to the American continent were systematically treated as less than human for most of US history, until the abolishment of slavey, obligating their white former-masters to free them. This, however, did not obligate fair treatment of black people. The Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s did wonders to help free black communities from oppression, but centuries of intense prejudice, persecution, and mistreatment as a result of systematic bias against African Americans affect communities to this day, where many fear for their safety due to violent acts by racist parties. The “other” has hurt them. Similarly, women around the world have had to fight for every bit of their rights. The right to an education, to vote for elected leaders, to own and manage property and capital in their own name, even to have custody of their children in cases of divorce, are all ‘rights’ many women around the world do not have. The male-dominated world has historically kept women in the shadows as second-class citizens. The “other” has silenced them. This isn’t to say all white men are horrible people. Just like all other groups, white men, or even men in general, cannot be generalized in such broad strokes. Historically white men have been in a position of power, and many have abused this position and used it to harm and further marginalize the “other”. Forgetting either of these aspects will result in a “single-story”, a term Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has coined to describe an unrepresentative, unfair, and incorrect view of a person or group. It must be noted that systems around the world have often been constructed in a way where members of marginalized groups cannot profit without taking advantage of others. Caitlin Flannagan agues women like herself, regardless of the additional steps they take to improve the conditions of nannies, are “part of a system that exposes women to the brutalities of illegal immigration, only to reward their suffering with the jobs that ease our already comfortable lives.” Flannagan feels trapped in this system of exploitation, and guilty for benefiting off of the oppression of working class women struggling to make ends meet. Her guilt is representative of the guilt many people feel towards the oppressed, because they, like Caitlin, are part of the group that benefits off of these injustices. This guilt is what enables collective entitlement, driving marginalized and oppressed groups to focus on themselves and enabling the “us versus them” mentality to truly set in. During the Civil Rights Movement, people of all races, regiligons, socioeconomic statuses, and virtually all other divisions put them aside in order to collectively rally for the rights of black Americans. Once collective entitlement set in, however, the sheer power of the collective was forgotten, and everyone focused on expanding their own specific rights. This trend sadly continues into present-day America, where people identify so completely with their group they ignore injustices they themselves wouldn’t commit, perhaps even defend them. For many, anything concerning the “other” or the world outside their group is either inaccurate, the direct result of the “other’s” actions, or simply an attack on their group’s beliefs and rights. Concerns, findings, and ideas are discredited or stricken down due to their source, as opposed to considered for their content, as can often be seen in American Congress, where any bill has little chance of passing, regardless of material, if it is put forth by a member of the minority party. Groups all over the world, inside governments and out, willingly commit themselves to a single story in which they are either completely faultless and in power, or the innocent victims of oppression. On a case-by-case basis this may be the case, but such blatant generalization is unhealthy for any community, especially America, which was founded on the idea of equality. The ‘equality’ envisioned by America’s founders was incomplete, and has been expanded and transformed into the equality American’s enjoy today, but it too can only go so far when group identity politics are taken into account. While necessary to secure basic rights for all Americans, society has reached a point in which grouping and the animosity of the “us versus them” mentality does more harm than good. No one can win if we all consider each other the enemy. The real enemy is the system that continues to marginalize and oppress despite our wishes, and that system can only be taken down with a complete abandonment of group identity politics as a whole, which have divided us for far too long. References Adichie, Chimamanda. “The dangers of a single story.” YouTube, uploaded by TED, 7 October 2009, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9Ihs241zeg&t=14s Flanagan, Caitlin. “How Serfdom Saved the Women’s Movement.” Crosscurrents: Reading in the Disciplines, by Eric Carl. Link, Pearson Education, Inc., 2013, pp. 243–250. Steele, Shelby. “The New Sovereignty.” Crosscurrents: Reading in the Disciplines, by Eric Carl. Link, Pearson Education, Inc., 2013, pp. 265–272. August 2020, 11th Grade
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