I’ve been reading about the development of resistance movements in WWII, and I noticed something that got me thinking.

Resistance in a unified front (i.e. among groups that disagree politically), seems to require some form of shared identity.

  • The fighting front in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (groups including Zionists and Bundists) shared the common identity of being Jewish.

  • The united front in the French resistance (nationalists and communists) shared the common identity of being French1.

I think we can all agree that identifying with American patriotism is entirely reactionary – as a settler colony, there’s basically nothing redeemable there.

Is there an effective shared identity for people in the U$ to resist from?

I feel like the 2020 BLM protests had a shared identity of anti-racism, but it feels like that energy has dissipated.

1: not an identity without controversy, but not as directly reactionary as a full settler colonial national identity.

    • Nondiegetic (any) @lemmygrad.mlOP
      4·
      3 days ago

      That seems reasonable. I don’t think we’ll see a united front against oppression in the U$ that includes a large number of whites/settlers.

      Like, we’ll see some with more specific identities (communist/antifascist or whatever).

      I think there’s a point in there about not having an identity beyond benefiting from oppression.

      • Nocturne Dragonite@lemmygrad.ml
        6·
        3 days ago

        Well, when you build your entire society on the basis of exclusion and othering this is the natural result, I’m afraid. I don’t really consider myself Amerikan because of that (I’m Black/New Afrikan)

          • Nocturne Dragonite@lemmygrad.ml
            6·
            3 days ago

            I think there is some merit in reclaiming lost identities, I don’t think that Amerikans have to attach themselves to the settler identity, most of them can actually trace back their lineage unlike a lot of us cause the records were destroyed or just not kept. After all, we were considered 3/5ths of a person…

            But I think that involves abolishing whiteness and the white identity first, which honestly isn’t really my problem, I didn’t create that mess. lol