Asad Haider on identity politics

Perth Indymedia

Identity politics. Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past few years, you’ll have at least heard the term. One particular version of identity politics featured heavily in Hillary Clinton’s campaign for the American Presidency. And if you spend so much as five minutes in left wing circles on social media, you’ll be guaranteed to encounter another, especially strident version of it. But what does the term identity politics actually mean? And why has it taken hold of the political left throughout the Western world in such an extraordinary way? Alex Whisson spoke to Asad Haider, author of Mistaken Identity: Race and Class in the Age of Trump.