when we look at the globe and see the
vast variation of human culture and
behavior it can be nothing but
astonishing and I’ve had the privilege
of experiencing that firsthand by the
time I was 16 I lived in seven different
countries on three different continents
it’s safe to say that most teenagers who
had a life like mine had a serious
identity crisis and when I was 16 I
thought I was so sure I had it figured
out
this is Who I am I’m talkative I’m
charming stylish African but when I
moved here to the Netherlands that
changed a little bit when I started
attending the American school not many
kids recognized me as African you see
there weren’t many kids of African
descent and it frequently frustrated me
how other biracial figures like obama
france and was recognized as african and
black the first black president i
desired that so this question of who i
am or who we are is very important and
today i want to talk to you about
identity and the political choices we
may make out of that
also known as identity politics so
before we continue i just would like
everyone to bring a few words to mind on
how they describe themselves this can be
anything what your job is what your
racial background is cultural background
religion it doesn’t matter there are
three studies that focus on apple amount
of time on identity and defining that
psychology sociology and philosophy in
psychology is to find us the
characteristics qualities and believes
one uses to associate with themselves
it’s the self image in sociology there’s
quite a bit of overlap but it has much
more to do with one how one defines
itself in relation to the other now in
philosophy it’s a little more
complicated
you see philosophers just love to make
sure everything is thought through and
very well defined so if philosopher
looked at the psychological definition
they would quickly say well what do
characteristics qualities and beliefs
really mean what is the self is their
self now some of you may be rolling your
eyes already just thinking about this so
don’t worry I won’t go into that much
depth but one thing that does intrigued
me is which definition of identity is
more accurate regardless of the academic
ones is your identity much closer to how
you define yourself or how others define
you there always seems to be a slight
discord between the two or perhaps is
identity more of a synthesis on how you
describe yourself versus how others
describe you or does it lie between two
opposing forces constantly in conflict
with each other to add onto that
identity flows and changes over time so
in the end we have this hyper complex
definition of what identity is and we’re
not much further than with the first
Chimamanda Adichie’s book americana
explains the story of a family a young
Nigerian woman moving to America for
university there the main character
becomes painstakingly aware of her
blackness and as enough progresses the
character starts to understand that
without understanding what being White’s
meant in America she couldn’t understand
what it meant to be black so if everyone
can just remember those first few words
they used to associate themselves with
how likely is it that this is going to
change over the years perhaps as you
move from city to city or from country
to country perhaps you said you’re
German and therefore you’re also
efficient perhaps you said you’re Dutch
and you’re very blunt maybe you said
your students to excuse your drinking
habits on weekend
maybe you said you’re a Christian or a
Muslim and you start your weekend or end
your weekend in worship some of you may
have said a feminist or communist
prepared to start a revolution
young or old straight or gay or any of
those things in between our identity
anchors to ourselves and we make our
decisions out of that who we associate
ourselves with who our friends are
even where we work or what political
party we vote for but if we’re
completely unclear on what identity
exactly is is it exactly the best choice
to choose our political dissidence out
of that I think the notion of identity
became clear to me when I moved to a
part of the world where the culture was
so different from me when I was 10 years
old my family and I we moved to the
Yemen Sanaa and so now was a beautiful
country so now was a beautiful city
largely untouched by the Western world I
remember when my Yemeni guard would
invite us over for Eid the celebration
after Ramadan and as my family I would
drive through the streets of Sanaa we
frequently see cows hanging upside down
by ropes and proud Yemeni fathers
handing over a Jumby ax to their sons
not much older than 13 even to kill the
cow or we would see the mothers
adjusting the hijabs of their daughters
when I played football on the streets
with the kids I would rock these really
short 70 style football shorts and I was
unashamed to show my thighs I mean while
the Yemeni kid would make fun of me but
if anyone really understands on what’s
happening in the Yemen today well it’s
horribly sad and to be honest the
connections I made with the children on
the football pitch or my guards
so very simply explained when I lived
there between 2005 and 2007 President
Ali Abdullah Saleh served as president
of the Yemen since
unification Salah was a longtime ally
and friend of Saddam Hussein and even
supported his invasion of the Kuwait now
what’s important here is that Saleh
served in a country deeply divided due
to regionalism aside from being two
different nations prior to the 90s Yemen
had a large variation of tribes which
these tribal differences were further
exacerbated due to religious differences
the Houthis which consisted of both
Sunnis and Shias opposed Sally’s
presidency since the 90s so when in 2005
after 15 years of presidency he
announced that he would no longer run
they were content and looked forward to
fair democratic elections however by
2006 he announced that he would run
again and by 2007 he had won
approximately 70% of the votes I just
left the country now this left a large
part of the population dissatisfied and
as intensity grew with difficult
political discussions by the time the
Arab Spring rolled around the Houthi
started resorting to more military
attacks and extremity you can see their
slogan portrayed as such the god is
great death to America death to Israel
and curse on the Jews now what had
perhaps started as a peaceful resistance
extremity the pression exacerbated due
to religion and weapons and became
uncritical with indoctrination on both
sides the world was divided into good
and evil and into black and white so why
am I telling you this I think the
difference between living in a peaceful
country and a war-torn one is not as
great as we think it is the people
inflicting those acts of violence are
honestly not far too different from you
and I they have friends and families a
lot of them are well-educated they
experience love and grief they
want the best for their countries and
their children so to call one side evil
would be ignoring all the complex
emotions that had led them down this
rather unfortunate path you see the only
promise that we have made in these
peaceful countries is that when someone
comes to power we may fundamentally
disagree with will verbally and
peacefully protest will engage into a
rational discussion and if or when we
lose will rethink our points so that our
children can grow in peaceful societies
perhaps even by accepting that there may
be a small chance that we are wrong that
we’re mislead or even evil or capable of
it we can become more compassionate what
philosophy has made me consider is that
perhaps identity so complex because
we’re complex creatures with our own
even to judge my political choices on
something as simple as the color of my
skin for instance would not only be an
insult to myself but also to you it
would be an insult to the just
identitarian movements that have existed
around the world the Martin Luther King
marches the women’s suffrage movement
the end of apartheid yes those movements
may have been supported primarily first
by the people who identified with the
oppressed group but the movements one
once they got transcultural recognition
that transcended the personal identities
of the oppressed perhaps we have to
consider that we shouldn’t be stacking
the microaggressions against us and put
them against the other what we’re
striving for is a society that is equal
for all identities in political
philosophy we ask ourselves this if you
could reconstruct society in any way you
could how would you John Rawls a
political philosopher goes one step
further and says now imagine not knowing
who you are
you erase your gender your sexuality
your family background friends have
absolutely no ties to you how would you
then build it perhaps to build a society
that is equal for all identities you
must shed our own in the first place
thank you [Applause]
vast variation of human culture and
behavior it can be nothing but
astonishing and I’ve had the privilege
of experiencing that firsthand by the
time I was 16 I lived in seven different
countries on three different continents
it’s safe to say that most teenagers who
had a life like mine had a serious
identity crisis and when I was 16 I
thought I was so sure I had it figured
out
this is Who I am I’m talkative I’m
charming stylish African but when I
moved here to the Netherlands that
changed a little bit when I started
attending the American school not many
kids recognized me as African you see
there weren’t many kids of African
descent and it frequently frustrated me
how other biracial figures like obama
france and was recognized as african and
black the first black president i
desired that so this question of who i
am or who we are is very important and
today i want to talk to you about
identity and the political choices we
may make out of that
also known as identity politics so
before we continue i just would like
everyone to bring a few words to mind on
how they describe themselves this can be
anything what your job is what your
racial background is cultural background
religion it doesn’t matter there are
three studies that focus on apple amount
of time on identity and defining that
psychology sociology and philosophy in
psychology is to find us the
characteristics qualities and believes
one uses to associate with themselves
it’s the self image in sociology there’s
quite a bit of overlap but it has much
more to do with one how one defines
itself in relation to the other now in
philosophy it’s a little more
complicated
you see philosophers just love to make
sure everything is thought through and
very well defined so if philosopher
looked at the psychological definition
they would quickly say well what do
characteristics qualities and beliefs
really mean what is the self is their
self now some of you may be rolling your
eyes already just thinking about this so
don’t worry I won’t go into that much
depth but one thing that does intrigued
me is which definition of identity is
more accurate regardless of the academic
ones is your identity much closer to how
you define yourself or how others define
you there always seems to be a slight
discord between the two or perhaps is
identity more of a synthesis on how you
describe yourself versus how others
describe you or does it lie between two
opposing forces constantly in conflict
with each other to add onto that
identity flows and changes over time so
in the end we have this hyper complex
definition of what identity is and we’re
not much further than with the first
Chimamanda Adichie’s book americana
explains the story of a family a young
Nigerian woman moving to America for
university there the main character
becomes painstakingly aware of her
blackness and as enough progresses the
character starts to understand that
without understanding what being White’s
meant in America she couldn’t understand
what it meant to be black so if everyone
can just remember those first few words
they used to associate themselves with
how likely is it that this is going to
change over the years perhaps as you
move from city to city or from country
to country perhaps you said you’re
German and therefore you’re also
efficient perhaps you said you’re Dutch
and you’re very blunt maybe you said
your students to excuse your drinking
habits on weekend
maybe you said you’re a Christian or a
Muslim and you start your weekend or end
your weekend in worship some of you may
have said a feminist or communist
prepared to start a revolution
young or old straight or gay or any of
those things in between our identity
anchors to ourselves and we make our
decisions out of that who we associate
ourselves with who our friends are
even where we work or what political
party we vote for but if we’re
completely unclear on what identity
exactly is is it exactly the best choice
to choose our political dissidence out
of that I think the notion of identity
became clear to me when I moved to a
part of the world where the culture was
so different from me when I was 10 years
old my family and I we moved to the
Yemen Sanaa and so now was a beautiful
country so now was a beautiful city
largely untouched by the Western world I
remember when my Yemeni guard would
invite us over for Eid the celebration
after Ramadan and as my family I would
drive through the streets of Sanaa we
frequently see cows hanging upside down
by ropes and proud Yemeni fathers
handing over a Jumby ax to their sons
not much older than 13 even to kill the
cow or we would see the mothers
adjusting the hijabs of their daughters
when I played football on the streets
with the kids I would rock these really
short 70 style football shorts and I was
unashamed to show my thighs I mean while
the Yemeni kid would make fun of me but
if anyone really understands on what’s
happening in the Yemen today well it’s
horribly sad and to be honest the
connections I made with the children on
the football pitch or my guards
so very simply explained when I lived
there between 2005 and 2007 President
Ali Abdullah Saleh served as president
of the Yemen since
unification Salah was a longtime ally
and friend of Saddam Hussein and even
supported his invasion of the Kuwait now
what’s important here is that Saleh
served in a country deeply divided due
to regionalism aside from being two
different nations prior to the 90s Yemen
had a large variation of tribes which
these tribal differences were further
exacerbated due to religious differences
the Houthis which consisted of both
Sunnis and Shias opposed Sally’s
presidency since the 90s so when in 2005
after 15 years of presidency he
announced that he would no longer run
they were content and looked forward to
fair democratic elections however by
2006 he announced that he would run
again and by 2007 he had won
approximately 70% of the votes I just
left the country now this left a large
part of the population dissatisfied and
as intensity grew with difficult
political discussions by the time the
Arab Spring rolled around the Houthi
started resorting to more military
attacks and extremity you can see their
slogan portrayed as such the god is
great death to America death to Israel
and curse on the Jews now what had
perhaps started as a peaceful resistance
extremity the pression exacerbated due
to religion and weapons and became
uncritical with indoctrination on both
sides the world was divided into good
and evil and into black and white so why
am I telling you this I think the
difference between living in a peaceful
country and a war-torn one is not as
great as we think it is the people
inflicting those acts of violence are
honestly not far too different from you
and I they have friends and families a
lot of them are well-educated they
experience love and grief they
want the best for their countries and
their children so to call one side evil
would be ignoring all the complex
emotions that had led them down this
rather unfortunate path you see the only
promise that we have made in these
peaceful countries is that when someone
comes to power we may fundamentally
disagree with will verbally and
peacefully protest will engage into a
rational discussion and if or when we
lose will rethink our points so that our
children can grow in peaceful societies
perhaps even by accepting that there may
be a small chance that we are wrong that
we’re mislead or even evil or capable of
it we can become more compassionate what
philosophy has made me consider is that
perhaps identity so complex because
we’re complex creatures with our own
even to judge my political choices on
something as simple as the color of my
skin for instance would not only be an
insult to myself but also to you it
would be an insult to the just
identitarian movements that have existed
around the world the Martin Luther King
marches the women’s suffrage movement
the end of apartheid yes those movements
may have been supported primarily first
by the people who identified with the
oppressed group but the movements one
once they got transcultural recognition
that transcended the personal identities
of the oppressed perhaps we have to
consider that we shouldn’t be stacking
the microaggressions against us and put
them against the other what we’re
striving for is a society that is equal
for all identities in political
philosophy we ask ourselves this if you
could reconstruct society in any way you
could how would you John Rawls a
political philosopher goes one step
further and says now imagine not knowing
who you are
you erase your gender your sexuality
your family background friends have
absolutely no ties to you how would you
then build it perhaps to build a society
that is equal for all identities you
must shed our own in the first place
thank you [Applause]
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