{"id":132149,"date":"2016-12-03T14:34:29","date_gmt":"2016-12-03T21:34:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/12\/03\/its-only-identity-politics-when-its-not-about-white-guys.html"},"modified":"2016-12-11T16:25:16","modified_gmt":"2016-12-11T23:25:16","slug":"its-only-identity-politics-when-its-not-about-white-guys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/12\/03\/its-only-identity-politics-when-its-not-about-white-guys.html","title":{"rendered":"It's only "identity politics" when it's not about white guys"},"content":{"rendered":"

I'm a straight white guy, so clearly there's something wrong with me when I can say, "Hey, there are other groups of people out there, groups that don't include me, that I should be cognizant of, that I should try to be sure get a slice of the pie as well, that aren't out to get me.<\/i><\/p>\n

I've been in enough "out" groups at various times that, even though I am in and of the biggest "in" groups, I can sympathize with others.<\/p>\n

And, yes, we are also all more than that, we are all human, we are all American. But to deny that there are<\/i> "in" and "out" groups — that black people, that poor people, that women, than gay people, that others, face additional barriers that I haven't had to surmount — would be deeply wrong as well. <\/p>\n

The backlash against so-called "identity politics" come from people who want to outwardly deny that those "identities" exist because they fear that it calls into question the easy "us vs them" that is a part of their being, that it's all a zero-sum game where those "other" folk can only win if I lose.<\/p>\n

'Political elections have always played identity politics. The difference is that the game was heretofore entirely weighted towards the white straight male, which I guess is why it comes as such a shock to that demographic when they are not at the absolute forefront of every single political discussion now.'<\/i><\/p>\n

It's difficult to figure out how to break out of that, not just the "us vs them" mentality that seems intrinsic to the human psyche, but balancing issues of unity and standing together, while recognizing that some groups, made up of individuals, have legitimate grievances that need to be heard, and honest problems that they face as a group that may not be recognized or appreciated by folk outside of that group. <\/p>\n

Identity politics can certainly be played as a divisive game (and that's even true when the largest "identity" is being semi-covertly riled up), but to acknowledge differences is also to acknowledge reality. When the most common cry against "identity politics" is by those who have most benefited from it, as an identity, then it's hard to see that cry as anything more than self-serving (or serving those who want a particular identity in their hip pocket).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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\n<\/a>
\n‘Don’t play identity politics!’ The primal scream of the straight white male | Hadley Freeman | Opinion | The Guardian<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

View on Google+<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I'm a straight white guy, so clearly there's something wrong with me when I can say, "Hey, there are other groups of people out there, groups that don't include me, that I should be cognizant of, that I should try to be sure get a slice of the pie as well, that aren't out to … Continue reading “It's only "identity politics" when it's not about white guys”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106,740],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-132149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-plusposts","category-race-racism"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":134680,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/09\/13\/congress-tells-trump-denounce-nazis-et-al.html","url_meta":{"origin":132149,"position":0},"title":"Congress tells Trump to denounce Nazis, et al","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 13-Sep-17 8:03am","format":false,"excerpt":"Okay, this is weird. Welcome, but weird. The House and Senate have unanimously passed a joint resolution urging President Trump to denounce racist and anti-Semitic hate groups, sending a blunt message of dissatisfaction with the president\u2019s initial, equivocal response to the white nationalist violence in Charlottesville, Va., last month. The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/alt-right-in-charlottesville.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":14723,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2009\/05\/06\/hunting-for-justices-in-some-of-the-wrong-places.html","url_meta":{"origin":132149,"position":1},"title":"Hunting for Justices in some of the wrong places","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 6-May-09 10:49am","format":false,"excerpt":"I've love to see another female justice on the Supreme Court. A gay justice would be cool, too. And those pasty white guys could probably use a Hispanic, Black, or Asian person to liven up those group pictures. Heck, why not a Muslim or a Buddhist or an Atheist? But\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "LGBTQ &c"","block_context":{"text":"LGBTQ &c","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/gay-stuff"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":135217,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/10\/30\/trumpists-just-want-government-work-everyone-else.html","url_meta":{"origin":132149,"position":2},"title":"Trumpists just want government to work for them … against everyone else","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 30-Oct-17 4:27pm","format":false,"excerpt":"The \"politics of resentment\" are not about small government per se, as the GOP has ostensibly been fighting for. Rather, it's a tribalistic demand that government work for the people -- but not for all of the people. The core of the ethnonationalist perspective is that a country\u2019s constituent groups\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/rolling-coal.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":135157,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/10\/23\/wisconsin-voter-suppression-2016.html","url_meta":{"origin":132149,"position":3},"title":"On Wisconsin and Voter Suppression in 2016","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 23-Oct-17 1:55pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Voter ID laws and similar shenanigans are always passed with the ostensible justification that they prevent voter fraud -- even though evidence of such fraud is always starkly lacking. Meanwhile, such laws demonstrably suppress voter turn-out, particularly from poorer voters, minority voters, students, and other groups that tend to vote\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/vote-here-whites-only.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":33229,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/04\/17\/extremism-about-extremism.html","url_meta":{"origin":132149,"position":4},"title":"Extremism about Extremism","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 17-Apr-13 6:26pm","format":false,"excerpt":"So there is supposed to have been a US Army Reserve training PowerPoint deck somewhere that labeled some groups as being part of Religious Extremism. \u00a0The story appears to have first broken in the UK's Daily Mail (http:\/\/goo.gl\/7m8D3).The presentation identifies \"extremist organizations\" \u00a0as 'A group which advocates the use of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2014,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/03\/26\/shocked_shocked.html","url_meta":{"origin":132149,"position":5},"title":"Shocked! Shocked, do you hear?","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 26-Mar-02 3:16pm","format":false,"excerpt":"The White House finally knucked under to a court order on providing documents about who met with Administration officials during planning for Bush energy policy. Surprise, surprise, it seems to...","rel":"","context":"In "Big Business"","block_context":{"text":"Big Business","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/big-business"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=132149"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132149\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":132264,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132149\/revisions\/132264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}