I’m in agreement with you here. Identity politics is used by both the left and the right to promote certain agendas, and it creates an unwelcoming atmosphere for minorities to participate in the process. I think this is the part that the left will have trouble accepting — in their mind, they think they’re being “inclusive” in the ways that they manage to “identify” certain sub-groups of people, but I think we’ve reached a point where people can mostly see through this charade.

The election was the sound of the bubble popping in its clear indication that people weren’t buying it anymore. And it’s not going to get any better, unless we can learn to let it go. Identity politics as a cultural/political process needs to be retired, for the good of everyone.

It’ll be a pretty rough transition because people’s sense of identity, for minorities and whites alike, tends to be tied to their sense of self-worth and the idea of “feeling special” in today’s culture. By focusing on differences between you and the people around you, you can get a sense of being “unique” and “different” from everyone else. But in the end, these differences are largely superficial and mostly divisive from a social point of view. We need to focus on the things that bring us together, rather than drive us apart, in order to make real progress.