Identity politics

Most political commentary today devotes at least a few column-inches to identity politics. How does this policy impact Hispanics? Blacks? Women? Jews? How did the primary voting in South Carolina break down along ethnic lines? Racial? Gender?

Are whites voting for Obama? Does Clinton have a lock on the African-American vote?

Every time I read these analyses I cringe.

My first - minor - objection, related via a story: I'm a white, 50-something, church-going, home-owning voter. What my political perspective has in common with Mike Huckabee can be written on a postage stamp in big block letters. The demographics that describe me do a pretty lousy job predicting my political beliefs. (Well - it probably depends on just which demographic dimensions you consider... I'd guess that if you sliced my "demographic" just right, you'd get a pretty good idea how I vote... but those slices have little or nothing to do with the combo "race/gender/age/church-attendance".)

My second - and more profound - objection derives from both current affairs and history. "Balkanization" - a cumbersome noun - was first used in the early 20th century to describe the ethnic division of the Balkan peninsula which shortly led to WWI. The Balkans are still tearing themselves apart along ethnic & religious lines. From more distant history, the religious wars of the early-modern period in Europe tore apart the continent along Catholic-Protestant fault-lines; the Inquisition was instituted to combat various flavors of heresy and maintain strict orthodoxy. The current political unrest (a term somehow less-than-adequate to describe events on the ground) in Kenya pits tribe against tribe, destroying the country. We've all learned to acknowledge the difference between Sunni and Shi'ite in Iraq!

"Identity politics" carried to the logical extreme is almost always purely destructive.

When we become something other than simple "Americans", we lose.

Yes, African-Americans share a heritage which I will never truly understand or appreciate.

Yes, Hispanic-Americans face daily discrimination that I will never understand.

BUT - if our political position is determined solely by our Balkanized identity, we cannot move forward as a country. Race, language, religion - all of these separate us.

I recognize that cultural/ethnic/racial/religious diversity can be positive. Differences are not the issue - each of us grew up in a family that belonged to many communities. Some communities were defined by race. Others by socio-economic status. Others by religion. We belonged to all of these.

Yeah, I know: Gender matters - I'll never be pregnant!

I live in Albuquerque, NM. To get by, I have to know a little Spanish - if only to read some of the billboards. I don't mind - in fact, I'm appreciative - learning a different language helps keep my mind active.

I'm a non-believing church-goer. I grew up in Tulsa, OK, accurately described during my teens as "the buckle of the Bible belt." As a result, I know the Bible better than most - and can recognize Biblical references in literature and everyday conversation - this is a good thing.

As a male, I'll never experience childbirth or the frustration of the "glass ceiling". I've worked for women managers, and with women colleagues... all that matters at work is competence. I've observed no gender-based differential along this dimension.

When I start thinking of myself as an injured non-Christian, mid-50s, white, male, I'll know that something has gone wrong.

I am an American.