Identity Politics

[asiajohn]

I was talking to my good friend Matt Sudnik over the new year and was happy to find common ground on the issue of "identity politics." Frankly I don't like them, I didn't vote for Obama because he was black (as a southerner that was just a sort of cool mini-game like when they put Gradius in Legend of the Mystical Ninja). I think the specific thing we got into this on was the Rick Warren inagural prayer dealy. I have friends who are jewish who are pissed, I have gay friends that are pissed, as a Buddhist I guess I should be pissed (cuz in Warren's theology, no matter how much he likes us we're going straight to h-e-double hockey sticks. You see it's the opposite of how I feel about my fundamentalist southern baptist relatives - they sure are a giant pain in my ass, but at the end of the day I like 'em). Anyway, Matt told me about the conversation he had with a close gay friend who works in DC I think, which mirrored a conversation I had with a close jewish friend. To paraphrase they both went something along the lines of: "Yeah this pisses me off, but a) instead of protesting this prayer or that character why can't we protest policies and b) by excluding this feller wouldn't Obama be sending the same signal to Conservatives that they've been sending to us forever and a day." I like this reasoning, of course, because it goes hand in my hand with tactics over emotion in the political arena. Still I realize that when it comes to identity feelings can get charged up pretty quick, and I'm not sure I'm the one to calm people down. I mean I get pissed when people call my sense of self into question, and seeing as sense of self is the first step towards identity...

But I still think Identity politics are lame, I still say I didn't vote for Obama because of his race, I don't go around supporting every Buddhist I meet. And so on.

Bitches.