The Identity Issue

Volume 6 Issue 4, March 2007

Identity is implicated in everything about us; our names, our possessions, even our actions–especially our actions. Identity is also implicated in the most heinous of human crimes, genocide being the ultimate example.

Identity is a contested issue. Should identity determine our goals and values, or do our actions determine our identities? Who gets to decide what our identities are? Is it up to us to define our own individualism, or are we predestined to act out certain roles based on our ancestoral and societal heritage?

I used to be a firm advocate of individualist identity–thinking that it was the lack of freedom and the predetermined allegiances implied by ethnically, religously and nationally defined identity that were at fault for much of the conflict in the world. I still believe that to be true. But I have also come to realize that abandoning those identities cannot be prescribed as an answer. I have come to see the inherent position of privilege I occupy whereby I have the option to question that freedom. I see that notions of power are intrinsic to the concept of idenity. And I have come to realize that while individual freedom to choose our own identities is an honourable goal, it must be viewed in light of the reality: that many, many people in the world do not even have the privilege to freely live those national, religious or ethnic identites. And until all peoples have relatively equal power to embrace those identities, there is no place for people of privilege to advocate that those identities be abandoned. It is therefore not enough that we all tolerate and respect others’ identities. Rather, we have to be actively engaged in creating the spaces in which those identities can be fulfilled and afforded their due power and legitimacy. Only then can we all begin to truly understand one another and embrace the vast diversity of human identity. We desperately need to create those spaces. We need to.

Alex Hundert
Editor-in-Chief