The Politics and Art of Naming and Re-presenting Identity in the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The body has long been considered a site of oppression. The pandemic has highlighted this once again as disadvantaged people and those from racial and ethnic minorities are disproportionately affected by COVID-19. I argue that language, and specifically naming, is used as a tool to constantly redefine the Other, keeping them in a constantly undefined identity state. This constant redefining perpetually delays any imperative for the oppressor to correct structural oppression, as the oppressed remain unknown. Simultaneously, the oppressed are blamed for their own disadvantages, further detracting from the process of addressing structural disparities. Using language and naming to constantly redefine and re-present marginalised identities as undefined has been a less recognised tool of oppression. This represents a kind of suffocation of identity. Conversely, activists have used language, often the very language that has been used to oppress in artistic forms to protest oppression and suffocation of identity. Artistic forms of protest through language are political and have persisted in the face of structural violence.