What do people mean with Neoliberal Identity Politics?

https://www.reddit.com/r/CriticalTheory/comments/1i5g393/what_do_people_mean_with_neoliberal_identity/

created by MexPirateRed on 20/01/2025 at 02:37 UTC

80 upvotes, 22 top-level comments (showing 22)

When I see various people talking about different topics, I have noticed this term, however I do not fully understand it.
My understanding of this topic is that it is the transformation of the individual and what you could say elements of identity in products for consumption, but I don't know if I am correct.

Comments

Comment by WRBNYC at 20/01/2025 at 08:54 UTC

34 upvotes, 0 direct replies

I would listen to this clip of Vivek Chibber[1] and then read this 2014 article by Adolph Reed[2], which does a good job of getting to the point on this in lucid, relatively accessible prose. If you want the formal academic version of Reed's argument you could move on to his articles Marx, Race, and Neoliberalism[3] and Antiracism: a neoliberal alternative to a left[4] .

1: https://youtu.be/hhwePFyB5g8?si=coHGTJXPm3I2pNho

2: https://harpers.org/archive/2014/03/nothing-left-2/

3: https://files.libcom.org/files/Marx,%20Race%20and%20Neoliberalism%20-%20Adolph%20Reed.pdf

4: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FJNE9hEyzGnnqW0eN81VFtmZLH9txtTT/view?usp=sharing

You might also find of interest this short document I made[5] while working on an essay on this years ago, which collects some of Edward Said's critical remarks on identity politics. (Apologies for the clunky formatting.)

5: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1pWI5xNuU0zCAlo56-Fts-naZdHBEPtD9/view?usp=sharing

Here are some fairly recent shorter pieces that gloss the view of identity politics you're asking about and its relationship to neoliberalism:

Vivek Chibber, 'Why Elites Love Identity Politics[6]'

6: https://jacobin.com/2025/01/elite-identity-politics-professional-class

Liza Featherstone, 'All That Remains of Neoliberal Identity Politics Is Fascism[7]'

7: https://jacobin.com/2024/10/all-that-remains-of-neoliberal-identity-politics-is-fascism/

Walter Benn Michaels, 'The Trouble with Disparity[8]'

8: https://nonsite.org/the-trouble-with-disparity/

Lastly, two *important* but slightly older essays that set out some of the key terms of the left critique of the politics of identity:

Barbara Fields, Slavery, Race, and Ideology in the United States of America

Eric Hobsbawm, Identity Politics and the Left

Comment by 3corneredvoid at 20/01/2025 at 03:21 UTC*

82 upvotes, 2 direct replies

There is a proper connection between the two.

Edit: should mention that while there is a proper connection, most of the time if you read the words "neoliberal identity politics" you're about to read a bunch of chauvinist bullshit. Just to be clear.

...

"Neoliberalism" is a poor term. "Actually existing neoliberalism" is usually talked about as a current authoritarian tendency of the bourgeois state and other social enclosures (schools, corporations, colleges, etc) in which a flexible and parametric repertoire of controlling policy is adapted in response to a proliferation of methods of state surveillance and measurement of the society or enclosure.

This is usually framed in benevolent terms for instance "means-tested benefits" or "diversity, equity and inclusion".

"Identity politics" is the term for political struggle within the ramifications of the social (and political and economic) formation of categories of identity, such as gender, race and sexuality.

These categories have a long history of drastically altering the conditions of life for those to whom they were and are applied.

In fact, theorists usually argue that prior material struggles produced the categories and their social reception in history. For instance the formation of Black identity in the US cannot readily be severed from its origins in labour exploitation via trans-Atlantic chattel slavery.

Because of how much they have influenced and influence material conditions for almost everyone, one way or another, these categories remain subject to political struggle.

However, since identity politics has lately normalised the social assertion and acknowledgement of categories of identity for individuals, these categories of identity have also been normalised as the "demographic markers" of neoliberal regimes of social measurement and policy-making. Gender, race and sexuality (and many other such categories) are now key measurements informing the operation of neoliberal policy regimes.

So "neoliberal identity politics" pretty much means political struggle about the way in which identity politics is taken up by the neoliberal state and neoliberal social enclosures.

Due to the more or less all-encompassing spread of neoliberal governance, this kind of politics now draws in everyone. Especially of course the "anti DEI" people celebrating the "vibe shift" of Trump's return to the Presidency, who practise an explicit white neoliberal identity politics fixated on the restoration of white advantage within every social enclosure—usually the attempt to remove measured identities (especially race and gender) as parameters of policy.

One interesting recent development in US politics was the encounter of this white neoliberal identity politics with straightforward bourgeois politics demanding cheaper and flexible access to labour over the question of H1B visas.

This was an upsetting development for the "anti DEI" cohort as it made it very visible that the current alliance of parts of US capital with white supremacism is a contingent matter of convenience.

Comment by SutorNeUltraCrepid4m at 20/01/2025 at 07:32 UTC

28 upvotes, 0 direct replies

hillary clinton once said something about how breaking up the big banks won't solve racism or sexism. essentially when identity-based issues are weaponized to excuse liberal bs. vapidly

Comment by IWantAGrapeInMyMouth at 20/01/2025 at 03:12 UTC

26 upvotes, 1 direct replies

someone explicitly saying "neoliberal identity politics" are probably talking about narrowing the focus of identity politics within the realm of private institutions. for example, a corporation's board having more black members, or higher rates of women as ceos of companies, etc... i would assume that's the thing they're trying to evoke, a sense of greater diversity amongst the bourgeoisie, while ignoring the plights and hardships amongst the proletariat and lumpenproletariat.

Comment by professor_madness at 20/01/2025 at 03:46 UTC

17 upvotes, 1 direct replies

Capitalist tribalism

Comment by luciddreamingx at 20/01/2025 at 16:49 UTC

4 upvotes, 0 direct replies

Elite Capture is a great text on this.

Comment by pedmusmilkeyes at 20/01/2025 at 03:10 UTC

7 upvotes, 0 direct replies

I think it means that identity movements are looking for an advancement of their market position, like representation in mass media, the PMC or some kind of liberal institution.

Comment by buckminsterabby at 20/01/2025 at 15:17 UTC

3 upvotes, 0 direct replies

I think the pursuit of rights and representation is an inherently liberal reformist action. Instead of trying to radically change the system, liberals want to add/expand the categories of identity that benefit from or are protected by the system. So identity politics can be neoliberal because its about reforms and recognition for certain identity groups to expand access to participate in free-market (ie through anti-discrimination legislation). It's pro-capitalist in the sense of corporate human rights campaign, DEI, etc - there has been a marriage between corporate capitalism and liberal identity politics and some people see that now as "liberal identity politics"

Comment by yat282 at 20/01/2025 at 03:41 UTC

6 upvotes, 0 direct replies

It's the idea that having more black cops, female CEO's, and trans Hollywood actors is any sort of actual progress. The problem is jot that these roles are held by straight cis white men, the problem is that they exist at all.

Comment by failingupwards4ever at 20/01/2025 at 19:22 UTC

2 upvotes, 0 direct replies

It’s hard to give a well defined definition of the term, since it’s often used to refer to a range of ideas and beliefs. If I had to give a functional definition, I would say it’s most commonly used to describe modes of thought which promote equality for those who inhabit marginalised identities but without inherently challenging the economic status quo. In the majority of the developed world, that status quo is neoliberalism.

For those who aren’t familiar with the term, Neoliberalism refers to a specific ideological basis for capitalism. One that champions free markets, privatization, deregulation, and the reduction of state intervention in economic affairs. it emerged in the mid-20th century as a response to the perceived failures of Keynesian economics and state-led welfare systems. It gained momentum in the 1970s and 1980s with the policies of leaders like Margaret Thatcher in the UK and Ronald Reagan in the US.

With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1990, Neoliberalism was cemented as the hegemonic ideology across most the developed world. Some argue that this gave rise to the consensus of “Capitalist Realism” in the West, that is the notion that there is no viable alternative to Capitalism, or at least not one which was realisable in the foreseeable future. This perspective can be useful for tracing how certain forms of leftwing politics drifted from prior critiques of the political economy, such as Marxism or conventional Anarchism and were forced to accept the status quo, begrudgingly or not.

Though it is often used as a crude and derogatory pejorative, the “Radlib” phenomenon is the most prevalent example of this I can think of. This refers to people who present an aesthetic of radical politics, while the substance of their politics is really just basic liberalism. This is what leads them to embrace market solutions to problems like patriarchy, white supremacy or queer oppression, leaving them unable to meaningfully challenge any of these systems.

Consider the fact that African Americans own a disproportionately small amount of the US’s wealth, and all of the social consequences that come without imbalance of power. The logic of Neoliberalism does not facilitate the massive transfer of wealth needed to challenge this disparity. As a result, any ideology which is subsumed by capitalist realism can only achieve racial equality in the form of equal participation in the market, (DEI programs for example). This approach cannot realise liberation for the majority of African Americans, at best it allows for a minority of the community to achieve bourgeois status at the expense of the majority.

This is not to say that advocating for forms these forms of equality within capitalism is inherently “bad”, rather it shows the necessity of imagining beyond capitalism if we wish to realise equality in any meaningful sense. Rather than asking for equal rights, perhaps we can imagine better rights and aspire to those.

Another thing I would say is that you should be sceptical of leftists who dismiss any form of identity politics on the basis that it’s “postmodern” or “anti-Marxist” etc. While neoliberal identity politics certainly has things in common with postmodern thought, I don’t think that assertion stands up to scrutiny. Modern proponents of identity politics still embrace things like essentialism (usually of marginalised subjects), but post-structuralists were very critical of these tendencies. They pointed out how strategic essentialism around established identities inevitably reifies the power relations which construct marginalised identities in the first place.

Comment by Frequent_Skill5723 at 20/01/2025 at 20:04 UTC

2 upvotes, 0 direct replies

Neoliberal is an economic term. Neoliberal policy has dominated Western economies for the past half century. Neoliberalism favors industrial and financial deregulation, slashing taxes on business and the rich while imposing cut-throat competition and ironclad anti-labor “free market” discipline upon workers with needy families.  Neoliberalism devalues community and places the responsibility for survival entirely on the individual

Comment by xjashumonx at 20/01/2025 at 02:53 UTC

6 upvotes, 3 direct replies

"identity politics" is just an epithet used to suppress political tendencies that critique or call into question white supremacy or heteronormativity. if the term were applied according to its ostensible use, then the biggest purveyors of identity politics would have to be Trump and MAGA because they are 100% white identity politics.

Comment by Icaroson at 20/01/2025 at 03:12 UTC

2 upvotes, 0 direct replies

Varies on the person.

Neoliberalism describes economic and social policies whose aim is to cut public services and privatize them. So, a neoliberal identity politics supports these policies. Its criticisms are that diverse people be welcome to occupy positions of power in the neoliberal hierarchy, which contrasts with ultra conservative elites who want to keep power White, straight, and male.

If I could explain it simpler, people whose complaint isn't that oligarchies exist, but that they should be allowed to join them. Even simpler, people complaining about being excluded from a den of thieves, rather than fighting the thieves.

Comment by pieman3141 at 20/01/2025 at 03:52 UTC

2 upvotes, 0 direct replies

Think right wing complaints about "DEI" or "woke," but taken to the worst extremes.

"We need more female dictators!!" is an extreme example of this. Less so, but equally awful, is the way the Democrats have behaved. They talk a lot about representation, but didn't platform a single marginalized person.

In terms of media consumption, while representation is good and all, if there's no actual consequences because of that representation, then why even bother in the first place?

Two examples of this is the new Top Gun movie vs. the HBO Watchmen series. The former had lots of representation, but no consequences came out of that representation. The latter had representation, but the representation was a core part of the backstory/lore, as well as the ongoing plot.

Comment by Spirited-Rich3008 at 20/01/2025 at 02:45 UTC

3 upvotes, 2 direct replies

As far as I'm aware, neo-liberalism is the philosophy that capitalism will definitely work 100% if we all just believed a little harder in the magic of Christmas! Identity politics is basically given weight to what people say based on how minority labels they have at a given moment. They tend to dominate media spaces since they're so decisive, but that power rarely translates into anything meaningful in the real world. So neoliberal IP is just a merger of the two sloppiest parts of modern politics. It centers focus on a person's identity, rather than the actually important sociopolitical issues affecting their lives.

Comment by Infamous-Associate65 at 20/01/2025 at 15:40 UTC

1 upvotes, 0 direct replies

Example, if a CEO is a woman, PoC, LGBTQ, etc & is celebrated for "representation" when actually CEOs no matter their identity are guilty of wage theft from workers who actually produce

Comment by Disjointed_Elegance at 20/01/2025 at 02:57 UTC

1 upvotes, 0 direct replies

Clinton using the term intersectionality is possibly the preeminent example. Roughly, the adoption of identity based political critique into neoliberal frameworks.

Comment by alpacinohairline at 20/01/2025 at 05:12 UTC

1 upvotes, 0 direct replies

It’s a mixed bag. Race definitely fractured our society in ways that should be addressed. I think a lot of accelerationist type marxists overplay the class struggle overrides all diversity card.

Comment by Longjumping_Swan_631 at 20/01/2025 at 22:44 UTC

0 upvotes, 0 direct replies

WhIte PeoPLe bAd, BLaCk pEoPLe gOod

Comment by marxistghostboi at 20/01/2025 at 02:43 UTC*

-4 upvotes, 1 direct replies

I don't think there's a singular meaning behind the label identity politics, except maybe "politics concerning the identities of those I don't like."

Comment by Vermothrex at 20/01/2025 at 09:20 UTC

-1 upvotes, 0 direct replies

"Vote for Hillary/Kamala because she's a woman! Pay no attention to their history or agenda or platform! FIRST WOMAN PRESIDENT"

Comment by nothingfish at 20/01/2025 at 05:16 UTC

-4 upvotes, 0 direct replies

Neoliberalism is an economic policy. It has absolutely nothing to do with identity politics.