The Real Reason for Identity Politics

  I wrote the follwing comment on another blog about two years ago; I would like to share it with the gang, with a few pertinent additions.


"It's just occurred to me right now that the really important thing about marginalization isn't the victim's identity, whatever that might be, but the perpetrator's attitude and behavior.  Women get into trouble because men can't stop obsessing about various female "attributes."  People of color get into trouble because we white people can't get over the fact that some people don't look like us.  Poor people keep running into attitudes about "not pulling one's own weight;" and LGBTQ's run into cut-and-dried views on the complexities of human gender and sexuality.   

The real issue isn't identity; it's manners and morals.  The finger-pointers and bigots are being nasty and abusive, in a way the Constitution, and in particular the Bill of Rights, aspires to abolish.  You don't have to like me, but if I'm not hurting you directly, why must I worry about your likes and dislikes, or what they might do to my welfare?  This is a basic point in many great socio-ethical writings, including the Mosaic social codes, the Bill of Rights, and the United Nations Charter of Human Rights: love 'em or hate 'em, but *do no harm!*

And, unfortunately, this cannotbe legislated.  It has to be thoroughly, thoroughly taught.

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