The idea was born out of a basic truth: nobody can empower or liberate anyone else. We've seen it again and again: well-meaning people proclaiming what Blacks or Native Americans or women or gay people need. It never works. It needs to be Blacks saying what Blacks need, women speaking for women, gay people speaking for gay people. Well-meaning liberals always get it wrong, and annoy the people they want to help.
How this plays out in the realm of politics is unfortunate. Consider the 2017 protests at Trump's inauguration. The story in the news was whether the white women were co-opting the women of color, and the whole message of the protests was lost.
There is a strong value on individualism in America. One might even go so far as to say that individualism is THE American value. Some say we value money over all things, but if there's one thing people will give up their money for, it's for the right to say who we are, what we want, what we believe. This is why some poor whites vote against policies that could lift them out of poverty: they will not sacrifice who they are just for money.
This individualism can come into conflict with discussions of race matters. Because I do not believe that people should be judged by the color of their skin, this argument runs, therefore I am not racist. To be told that I do have a racist impact, in spite of my beliefs and intentions, challenges my identity.
One can finesse this conflict. If one accepts the anti-racist intention as genuine, if the issue is phrased as a matter of "unintended results," the racism becomes a case of miscommunication. I can take a room full of high school students who insist that "race blind admissions" is the best approach, and in five minutes have them agreeing that they would take the black kid with the lower test scores over the white kid. Not because it is racial justice, but because they see the value in the kid who did "almost as good" while struggling against the odds over the kid who was groomed for success. But to do this, I have to make the story be about these individuals. Not about racial identity.
Identity politics turns on the principle that the issue is not what you believe, not what you say, not what you do. The issue is who you are. You are a white man. You cannot be the agent of black liberation, of feminine power. Most everybody is part of the oppressor class in one way or another. If you are white, or male, or Anglo, or middle-class, or straight, or cis-gendered, or Protestant (even if just by heritage). Nobody can liberate anybody else. Nobody is "us," because we are split into these micro camps, and everywhere we turn there is someone whose experience is not ours, who resents being over-ruled.
Identity politics cannot be reconciled with individualism. While American individualism is, in my opinion, a fault (at least in the extremism of its expression), it will win hands down any fight it joins in American politics. It is our core American value. We will not be told, as Americans, that our choices, our opinions, our deeds are unimportant. We refuse to be reduced to our racial labels. We aspire to an ideal of a racial neutrality, where people are each accepted as themselves. Identity politics is in fundamental conflict with this core value, it defines us not as individuals but as representatives of a type.
We are at a crossroads. The alt-right has had its day in the sun, and it was ugly. For the American left to seize the moment, we must find a way to move past identity politics. If we don't, we will miss the opportunity, and leave an empty heart, waiting for the seven demons, worse than the first, to fill our emptiness.
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