Identity politics and universal liberalism

[CAAKE]

A useful, readable article taking down aspects of postmodernism and the consequential rise of identity tribalism.

Pertinent in light of this week's happenings.

areomagazine.com/2018/09/25/identity-politics-does-not-continue-the-work-of-the-civil-rights-movements/

Saving this for bedtime reading Thanks for posting.

Anything that discusses MLK is fine by me :)

That's a very helpful overview of Crenshaw's intersectionality.

I'm going to need to think a lot more about the complexities of social justice and universality.

Universality does not require assuming that racism, sexism, or homophobia does not exist. Neither does it assume that there is no work left to do to oppose these problems and defend vulnerable racial or religious minorities, protect women’s reproductive freedom, and hold on to LGBT rights. When the need to do all of those things is presented in terms of universal human rights and fairness, it will find much more support than when it is presented in terms of incomprehensible theory, irrationalism, biased interpretations of interactions, cruel irony, demands for reparative justice, and abandonment of the principle of non-discrimination against people by identity markers.

I've read that article through several times.

I'm getting there in grasping the nuances. It is making me very aware of how difficult it is to express the nuances in a way that is not easily misconstrued and how very well-versed one would need to be in the terms of the argument before even attempting to discuss it.

The fear of making a mis-step is considerable. However, that is not a good reason to decide against boning up on this or to defer attempting to work through the ideas. I have to be able to discuss this.