Difference and Identity Essay example -- Identities Ethnicity Papers

While I am socially defined as "white," "male," "European," and so on, my theses are not formulated to affirm the social position(s) attached to these attributes but, rather, to indicate some of the limitations implicit in the concepts of identity and difference. Interestingly, two hundred years ago, the overcoming of oppression followed the concept of identity, whereas today the concept of difference is central. Why is this change not discussed in the present debates on difference? Preliminary Observations: (1) a) The following ten theses have as their context the present efforts to face racism and sexism, and another forms of repression towards social minorities or groups which have the position of minorities, without being. The right to selfdefence and to fight oppression cannot be denied to any oppressed social subject. However it is valid to make some critical observations on the forms portrayed in the eager pursuit of emancipation. The author, socially defined as "white", "male", "European" and so on, formulates these theses not to affirm the social position that he might perhaps have, due to these attributes, but rather to indicate some limitations that are implied by the use of concepts of identity and difference in the search for emancipation. b) Two hundred years ago, the concept of equality was utilised in the same way, that nowadays, the concept of difference is, that is to say the overcoming of oppression, or the pursuit of emancipation. The interesting thing is, that this change is practically not discussed at all in present debates on difference. What is the reason for this? c) There is a parable that counts of an old society in which it was taken as fact, that the world rests on the backs of four giga... ...ish version of this text is: Max Horkheimer and Theodor W. Adorno: Dialectic of enlightenment. Translated by John Cumming. [New ed.]. London : Verso, 1979. (Horkheimer and Adorno refer here to: Sigmund Freud, "Das Unheimliche", in: Sigmund Freud, Gesammelte Werke, Frankfurt am Main, 1968, vol. XII, pages 254 and 259 and others.) (3) Also see on the problem of the identity: Bolà ­var Echeverrà ­a, La identidad evanescente, in: Bolà ­var Echeverrà ­a, Las ilusiones de la modernidad, Mà ©xico, D.F. UNAM / El Equilibrista, 1995, pages 55-74. Echeverria makes in this text, starting off from the theory of Wilhelm von Humboldt, the proposal "to conceive the universality of the human in a concret way", with what it could be rescued, using our concepts, the equality and at the same time the difference ( page 58) ["concebir la universalidad de lo humano de manera concreta"].