Where Identity Politics Fall Apart…

Identity politics fall apart at the point in which they do not just create division but they encourage the dehumanization of anyone else who is a threat to your “tribe.”

It’s almost as if as soon as our pre-pubescent years are over we begin dividing amongst each other. I never

To me, identity politics fall apart at the point in which they do not just create division but they encourage the dehumanization of anyone else who is a threat to your “tribe.”

Similar to hate being learned far too many of these divisions are taught to us.

Whether or not it’s racial (black vs. white), national (Israel vs. Palestine), economic (lower vs upper classes), or religious (Christian vs. Muslim) these divisions are learned constructs; that is, identities handed down to us. What undermines division the most, I believe, is the underlying notion that life is somehow a “competition.” It subversively teaches us to think, “our God is more powerful…” or that “our nation or race is the most exceptional and/or supreme…” the list goes on.

This was probably the most traumatic experience for me, in academia… That is, going from the conservative evangelical church to the progressive side of the church only to discover that it was the flip side of the same coin: different but, lonelier.

It was unfamiliar territory; entrenched in politics, driven by authoritarianism, fueled by “ego,” and completely vacant of empathy.

It was so Machiavellian that the means are simply too exhausting to ever justify any end. It sucks the life out of you and others to regain any sort of “justice.”

It was also the first time I’d ever learned about this thing called “critical race theory (CRT).”

It was just as confusing and convoluted as it sounds. It’s also the basis of which many others have used to launch platforms based upon the politics of one’s identity. Later on I came to find this is a thing they call, “Identity Politics”…

“Identity politics refers to political positions based on the interests and perspectives of social groups with which people identify. Identity politics includes the ways in which people’s politics are shaped by aspects of their identity through loosely correlated social organizations[2].”

They are nothing but political ideologies manipulating vulnerable emotionalities to then be leveraged to win votes, coerce the masses, and then turn us against one another; all the while keeping the powerful in power.

There’s absolutely no life in this.

It’s devoid of empathy. It’s this convoluted idea that (at least within the progressive Church world) in order to help people you must sometimes be willing to also hurt people… And, mostly, it’s just a game I didn’t want to play.

In order to adhere to the politics of identity, I have to agree to play by the rules in which keep us divided.

It took the poor white person struggling in the flyover states and made them into the oppressor; when, in reality they’re just innocent bystanders suffering at the hands of the same powers.

In the words of DJ Khaled,

It’s tribalistic in the sense that we’ve so far normalized division that we’ve somehow forgotten we’re all still just people. It was this culture of “us” vs. “them.” There was this undertone of combativeness from all ends of the discussion. There was this learned form of language and understanding that perpetuated a reactiveness.

“Evil can be opposed without being mirrored. Oppressors can be resisted without being emulated. Enemies can be neutralized without being destroyed.”

– Walter Wink

I mean, pause for one minute and consider this:

What if we were all just speaking past each other, miscommunicating, all the while we’re all just saying the same thing but just in very different ways?

What if identity politics as we’ve known them are no longer relevant today in the same way they were yesterday?

It’s disorienting at first but, will we ever reach clarity enough to see that we’re all just people?

The countries both directly above and below us are filled with the same species as us… humans. They’re not our enemies. They don’t even know you or your family. They’re in the same struggle as you and I. We’re not “exceptional” unless all of us are equally exceptional. We’re not “supreme” unless all of us are supreme.

What if we stepped away from the convoluted talk and academic/ theological jargon and reminded ourselves of the obvious: we’re all the same..