Why identity and privilege matter: Yesterday in Sydney Morning Herald Lakita Bourke (2021) wrote:“Prime Minister Scott Morrison says identity politics and the moral corrosion caused by the misuse of social media are forces seeking to undermine society.” 1/56 #Justice4Australia

“Mr Morrison made the remarks in a speech – in which he repeatedly referred to his Pentecostal faith – called “the responsibility of citizens in building community to achieve national success”. Morrison told an audience “as citizens, we cannot allow what we think we are 2/56

entitled to, to become more important than what we are responsible for.” So what is identity politics, how does it relate to entitlement and responsibility, and why does Morrison think it undermines society? Bisexual Muslim Poet @Omarjsakr (2017) commented for SBS: 3/56

“If I had to name one of the most urgent issues of our time, I would be hard-pressed to look past what is now dismissively termed “identity politics”—that is, the demand by marginalised groups for equality. Notice I didn’t say “climate change”? 4/56

That’s because even this relates to identity politics, since the people who will be disproportionately impacted by its worst affects are third world countries, island nations, and the poor. 6/56

Everything comes back to the framework established by Western imperialism, that original form of politicised identity, where white men endowed their own constructed sense of self with more value than all non-white, non-male, and non-straight bodies. 7/56

Yet, when we think about the term “identity politics” now, what springs to mind are the efforts of culturally and linguistically diverse people to redress structural imbalances designed specifically to disadvantage them.” According to @Omarjsakr (2017): 8/56

“Identity affects everything, from the area you live to your job to how much you get paid. From whether you get the house you applied for to how you’re treated by authority figures and government services, so on. Although it can be mitigated, via class, it can never be 9/56

completely overcome, as we’ve seen through the double standards applied to famous people of colour, be they athletes like Adam Goodes or politicians like Barack Obama. Even within classes, a prejudicial hierarchy exists. This is the central thesis of identity politics— 10/56

it has always been about structural barriers and biases privileging white people, as opposed to an individualistic focus on race or sexuality.” Yesterday Bourke (2021) wrote that Morrison stated: “I would argue that we must protect against the forces that would 11/56

undermine community – and I don’t just mean the social and moral corrosion caused by the misuse of social media and the abuse that occurs there. It also includes the growing tendency to commodify human beings through identity politics. 12/56

You are more than the things others try to identify you by in this age of identity politics. You are more than your gender, your sexuality, your race, your ethnicity, your religion, your language group, your age.” Bourke (2021): “Mr Morrison said reducing ourselves to 13/56

attributes, or dividing along these lines, made us lose sight of “who we are as individuals”. However, @Omarjsakr (2017) mentions the problem with dismissing identity politics: “Whenever people make such claims, I think of the Black Lives Matter movement, which is often 14/56

targeted as an example of “divisive” identity politics. What critics gloss over is that organisation’s extensive manifesto calling for, among other things, judicial and police reforms, tax and economic reforms, education reform, and universal healthcare; with specific 15/56

outcomes listed within each section. It’s not that Black Lives Matter cares about nothing other than race, so much as the incredibly racist commentary around it has reduced its complex platform to identity alone.” According to Bourke (2021) Morrison said: “When they 16/56

define each other by the boxes we tick or don’t tick – rather than our qualities, skills and character – we fail to see or value other people as individuals.” Morrison said the Jewish community understood better than other groups what happens when people are 17/56

“defined solely by the group they belong to, or an attribute they have, or an identity they possess”.” How would First Nations people feel, or people who fled danger to seek asylum in Australia, about this claim that the Jewish community know better? 18/56

@Omarjsakr (2017) wrote: “To say people of colour rallying around their ethnic identity gives ammunition to white supremacists is to fundamentally misunderstand both history and present: racists are and have been firing at non-Anglo bodies since beginnings of colonialism. 19/56

The issue with the universalism is that we don’t all live in the same world, even when we share the same country, geographic space, or class. People who have trouble reconciling how ideals can work in theory but fail in practice, don’t seem to recognise this is because 20/56

as soon as ideas are translated into reality, they are warped by the unequal structures of power at play. Take, for example, those who say, “We are all Australian and that’s enough.” It’s a beautiful ideal, but one we’ve proven we’re not ready for. 21/56

“Australian”, by itself, indicates an equality that simply doesn’t exist. Australians are not all treated the same by our government, and what’s more, it implies a false default to which all else is foreign and lesser. But there is no such thing as an Australian. 22/56

There are Indigenous-Australians. Anglo-Australians. Arab-Australians. German-Australians. Samoan-Australians. Somali-Australians. And so on. With the exception of First Nations people – who, in my opinion, alone can choose whether to hyphenate this 23/56

identity or not – no one here has anymore of a right to the space we share, the nation we live in.” @Omarjsakr (2017) also wrote: “too many people assume difference means division. But when my Samoan friend says to me “I’m Samoan”, I don’t respond, “Stop being divisive!”, 24/56

I say, “And I love you”.” So why is Morrison against identity politics and does he use identity in politics? Bourke (2017) stated: “Mr Morrison referred to a speech he gave to his own church community last week in which he said social media could be used as a “weapon” by 25/56