The Identity Explosion
Source: radixjournal.com
Just when you thought Rachel Dolezal’s 15-minute freak show was over, Shaun King, a prominent #BlackLiveMatter activist, has raised the specter of White people impersonating Black people at the highest levels of SWJ.
It’s easy to view the Dolezal and King stories as merely opportunities forSchadenfreude: the hypocrisy of the Left is laid bare—as well as the shameless mendacity and ruthlessness of some of its high priests and preistesses.
But something bigger is happening. The Dolezal phenomenon—transracialism—has entered into the public consciousness; it will echo throughout the progressive Left and unleash a paradox that will decimate identity politics.
There has always been a certain contradiction in the kind of identity politics favored by the Left. On one hand, it argues that society must not discriminate against the lifestyle choices made by “alternative” individuals. On the other, there are no choices. Homosexuality is biological, innate, and immutable. The same goes for transgenderism, wherein men who identify as transgender are said to have “female” brains, and vice versa for transgender women.
The struggle between these two competing views of the world is best illustrated by the Left’s infatuation with race. America is seen as a White supremacist country, wherein Whites exclusively benefit from a discriminatory system. Because of this, it is important for people of color to advocate ruthlessly for their own self advancement, so as to overcome the institutional handicap of their skin color. At the same time, race does not exist. It is entirely irrelevant, and while evolution contributed to the differing physical characteristics of the races, evolution has not in any way acted upon mental faculties. Africans, Europeans, Asians, and Jews are completely identical from an intellectual standpoint. Any distinction in crime rates, civilizational status, and IQ scores is due purely to historical factors. In other words, race does not matter in any meaningful sense, but race does matter in that people of color are continually faced with the prospect of overcoming their own historicity, yet seemingly incapable of doing so.
Progressives want nothing more than to reach the point where race is no more meaningful than boxers or briefs. Yet, for this to happen, transracialism must also be acceptable. Consider a theoretical progressive utopia in which race does not matter. In this reality, it would be acceptable to engage in transracialism. If blackface were seen as deeply insulting, then obviously race would continue to matter, and the utopia would be invalid. The entire goal of progressivism is the absolute fungibility of the individual, but this remains impossible given the progressive fixation on race and, to a lesser degree, sex.
This is why Rachel Dolezal and Shaun King are so problematic. Their existence reframes the concept of race from being an issue of identity to being one of choice. This contradiction has always existed, but the unmasking of Dolezal and King has forced a confrontation that could have remained buried.
Men can already choose to be women, as Caitlyn Jenner has so pointedly shown. But at this point, what validity do feminist critiques of society have? After all, cannot women choose to be men, and thus reap the rewards of a patriarchal system? A feminist may say that women should not have to become men in order to advance, but why not? They are both identical, or are they not?
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