With a little class A critique of identity politics

ABSTRACT This article seeks to illuminate the political and ideological impli-cations of identity politics based on racial/ethnic labels currently used in the United States. The salience of politically constructed racial and ethnic identities, and the exclusion of class from legitimate political discourse and common sense understand-ing of how society works, have undermined the ability of most Americans to under-stand the root causes of their problems. The solution lies, the author argues, in a conceptualization of identity that is grounded both in cultural difference and common locations in the structures of inequality. KEY WORDS class ● gender ● globalization ● identity ● ideology ● multi-culturalism ● rac