I’ve been reading about the development of resistance movements in WWII, and I noticed something that got me thinking.
Resistance in a unified front (i.e. among groups that disagree politically), seems to require some form of shared identity.
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The fighting front in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (groups including Zionists and Bundists) shared the common identity of being Jewish.
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The united front in the French resistance (nationalists and communists) shared the common identity of being French1.
I think we can all agree that identifying with American patriotism is entirely reactionary – as a settler colony, there’s basically nothing redeemable there.
Is there an effective shared identity for people in the U$ to resist from?
I feel like the 2020 BLM protests had a shared identity of anti-racism, but it feels like that energy has dissipated.
1: not an identity without controversy, but not as directly reactionary as a full settler colonial national identity.
That seems reasonable. I don’t think we’ll see a united front against oppression in the U$ that includes a large number of whites/settlers.
Like, we’ll see some with more specific identities (communist/antifascist or whatever).
I think there’s a point in there about not having an identity beyond benefiting from oppression.
Well, when you build your entire society on the basis of exclusion and othering this is the natural result, I’m afraid. I don’t really consider myself Amerikan because of that (I’m Black/New Afrikan)
That makes sense! I would like to not consider myself Amerikkkan.
I think there is some merit in reclaiming lost identities, I don’t think that Amerikans have to attach themselves to the settler identity, most of them can actually trace back their lineage unlike a lot of us cause the records were destroyed or just not kept. After all, we were considered 3/5ths of a person…
But I think that involves abolishing whiteness and the white identity first, which honestly isn’t really my problem, I didn’t create that mess. lol