(OPride) – Identity has always been at the core of human socio-political evolution. The institution of slavery was based on identity. Imperialism took place at the expense of different identities. Today, democratic governments around the world struggle to address questions of identity.
Despite this fact, some elites deny the relevance of identity as a strong force for political organizing. For example, in the former Soviet Union, identity was treated as a primordial human nature – a false consciousnesses that ought to be settled through the elimination of classes. But the end of Cold War and the rise of national independence movements disproved communism’s disdain for identity politics.