Identity Politics – Get Over It

A few days ago, I posted this video to a group I run on Facebook.  Only one person responded, because the topic of “Identity Politics” is touchy in our group.  If you don’t know, Identity Politics is defined as “a tendency for people of a particular religion, race, social background, etc., to form exclusive political alliances, moving away from traditional broad-based party politics.”  You’ll notice that the words “exclusive” and “traditional” are used to define it.  I point this out because this is nothing new.  There have always been identity politics in this country, it’s just that now non-traditional views have a voice and are being heard.

The person who responded is someone I have a great deal of respect for.  He’s smart and he practices law.  While he did not disagree with anything that was said in this video, he felt the need to elaborate on the issues he has with “identity politics or whatever you call it.”

I have been trying to write a response that doesn’t sound like I’m smacking him with a sledge-hammer.  This is what I have thus far.  I’d appreciate your thoughts:

It has taken me some time to formulate a response to your well-worded and thought out reply. I understand your point, but I think you’re missing a crucial one here. You said, “What I object to is the type of politics, whether we call it identity politics or something else, where my moral standing in certain circles is dictated by my gender, skin color, and sexual orientation.”

Welcome to our world.

Women have had the right to vote for less than 100 years in a country that was founded 250 years ago. Men of color were “guaranteed” the right to vote only 150 years ago, and even then and still today, they have to fight laws, policies, and gerrymandering designed to keep them from voting or their vote from counting.

My authority as an educator has been questioned due to my gender. My capacity to understand automobiles or technology is doubted due to the fact that I have a vagina. It’s not just by men. Women are often just as surprised to learn that I have replaced the alternator in my ex boyfriend’s car, or that, before I got sick, I performed all the regular maintenance on my own vehicle, and enjoyed it. I co-managed an apartment complex with a male friend, and it was I who did all the general maintenance – replacing toilets, lighting pilot lights, fixing leaky sinks. And every time, I had someone standing over me, doubting my ability to get the job done.

Same-Sex couples have had the right to marry for not even four years. The Pulse Nightclub massacre was only three years ago.

Women are raped and the white, affluent rapists, are given absurdly lenient sentences. How often do we hear of these light sentences for people of color?

In general, it can be said that if a crime is committed against a person of color because of his color, against a woman because she has a vagina, against a Queer person, because that person is Queer, 99 times out of 100, it is going to be committed by a straight, white man.

No reasonable person believes that this is the natural state of the majority of straight, white men. Yes, I realize that there are people who take things to extremes. But as an intelligent, thoughtful, reasonable (and humble) woman, it is hard to not get bitter when every movement intended to empower the oppressed is met with such rabid hostility by the group that has historically been the oppressor. It is 11 o’clock on a Friday morning, and I’ve already read hostile responses to Pride, calling for a straight pride parade. I’ve seen people calling a “Chicano Renaissance” racist, because if white people were doing this, it would be frowned upon. I’ve seen people trashing the #MeToo movement because it makes all men out to be rapists (it doesn’t).

The thing is, the world revolves around straight, white, men, and has for hundreds of years. This hostility for “identity politics” truly feels like a spoiled child who has gotten the best seat on the bus for years, but now there’s a new bus driver, and someone else gets the special seat sometimes. When that spoiled child throws a fit, reasonable people are going to explain to him why this is fair and that he needs to get over it. When he continues to throw a fit, people will stop taking him seriously and begin to scold him and he’ll deserve it.