ABSTRACT
In both the denunciations of intersectionality on the right and the appropriation of it by liberal capitalist institutions, identity is taken to be something clear, unitary, and uncomplicated. The liberal, capitalist appropriation of intersectionality likewise takes identity as a rather uncomplicated terrain. The dynamic and conflictual nature of identity in the intersectional tradition, does not, however, mean that “anything goes!” Taking up Patricia Hill Collins's suggestion to think about intersectionality as “a critical theory in the making,” It should be clear that the kind of identity politics demanded by the intersectional tradition diverges greatly from the contemporary power structures that benefit from exploitation and oppression. The work of liberation involves much more than a complex relationship to identity; it also involves questions of organizational form, consciousness raising, community building, coalition forging, healing trauma, collective redistribution, and global reparation.
