The End of Identity Liberalism + Guillermo Gomez Peña

How do these texts challenge previous positions/assumptions/biases/experiences you might have had in regards to your understanding of your own identity and privilege? 

This is a challenging question to answer as I feel that I had two distinctly different reactions to the two texts I read. The first text I read was The End of Identity Liberalism by Mark Lilla. I found this particular opinion piece challenging because while there were certain things I agreed with, I largely disagreed with most of the article. For instance, Lilla writes, "If you are going to mention groups in America, you had better mention all of them. If you don't, those left out will notice and feel excluded." I think it's certainly difficult to disagree with this statement after we've seen the results of the 2016 elections - clearly, we have forgotten (especially those of us from large urban centers) about fellow Americans in neighboring suburbs and rural areas. And I'd say that we have forgotten about this rural population long before this election. In my opinion, there is no doubt, that the left has failed to recognize "the other" and I would say that since day 1 after the election, it has been my goal as a human and artist to fix that misnomer and recognize "the other" with empathy. On the other end of the spectrum, the Trump campaign could be equally blamed for forgetting or rather, ignoring and blatantly attacking citizens of the left (immigrants, diverse gender-identifying people, minorities, different races, people of diverse ethnicities, women, etc.). Furthermore, I largely disagree with the authors insistence on a post-identity politics after we have just witnessed and continue to witness the literal attack on the diverse identities that make up this country. How can I not view the circumstances of today as a whitelash when Trump's entire campaign criminalized minority communities, largely through assumptions of supposedly increased crime levels in "inner cities"? How can I not view the circumstances of today as a whitelash when Trump's administration places a ban on Muslim refugees? And finally, how can I not view the circumstances of today as a whitelash when Trump belligerently insists on deporting undocumented immigrants and building a wall between the U.S. and Mexico? I could continue to list these questions on and on, not mention the misogyny that dictated Trump's campaign, but my overall point is that we are not at the point where we can enter  a space of post-identity when we've all literally suffered a crusade against our identities via Trump, with the exception of white, heterosexual, American men (and I apologize for my bluntness here).

After reading this article, it was truly a breath of fresh air to enter the text of Guillermo Gomez Peña, who so beautifully articulates his experience between borders and around the world as a Mexican man. Peña invites us to understand his positioning in the world and how his identity as a Mexican nomadic performance artist/writer has created a liminal existence for himself, further questioning our notions of identity. I sympathize with his explanation of his own "Chicanoization" process that he's undergoing especially when he questions, "Will I ever be considered Chicano?" Ultimately, Peña allows us to understand that the question of identity does not follow a clear binary, but is rather a beautiful, complex thing. In my own personal life, it is only recently that I've come to understand my own identity. All my life, people would ask, 'where are you from?' and when I'd respond that I'm from New York, people would insist further by asking, 'where are you really from?' I've often questioned in my own life whether or not I would ever be considered an American? Especially as a child, I desired so much to be identified as 'American' and to be  befriended by fellow American classmates in school, but this would never happen because kids would make fun of my traditional Russian lunches or laugh at my father and his think accent when he'd pick me up from school. Perhaps, I'm oversimplifying, but identity in America is a weird thing. Today of course, ones' identity can literally prove to be a matter of life or death as we've seen this weekend with the Muslim ban.

Why is an understanding of our identity and privilege (and/or perception of) essential factors  in our creative work with communities?

Firstly, I would say that always questioning my privilege as a white woman is of crucial importance prior to working or collaborating with communities outside my own. I think more and more I have come to understand that giving credit where credit is due is of upmost importance, especially in circumstances of collaborative work within communities. Oftentimes, we see artists, who do not question their privilege prior to entering communities and quite frankly, capitalizing on those same communities through the production and profitability of art (Santiago Sierra, Artur Zmijewski, etc.). Beyond this, I believe that by understanding our own identities and privilege, this enables us to understand how that dictates our positioning in society and therefore allows us to understand our fellow neighbors and communities beyond with open hearts. I extremely appreciated Peña's astute explanation of working with his own identity when he wrote, "I only write or make art about myself when I am completely sure that the biographical paradigm intersects with larger social and cultural issues." I think that viewing ourselves as cultural producers against a larger framework is equally important and in my own practice, I also hope to refrain from the narcissistic tendencies often associated with artists, unless, as Peña evokes, it has something to do with the world at large.