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<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\n\u201cBeware that, when fighting monsters, you yourself do not become a monster.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 Nietzsche<\/p>\n
Hypothetically speaking, what if your enemies weren\u2019t really your enemies? What if \u201cthose people\u201d tweeting \u201c#AllLivesMatter\u201d were not trying to negate the fact that #BlackLivesMatter? What if their struggle had more similarities to your struggle than we\u2019ve been lead to believe?<\/p>\n
Many of you probably saw the Trevor Noah bit on identity\u2026 (if you haven\u2019t, then you can watch it here<\/a>); regardless, what I heard both he and the French Ambassador saying was essentially the same thing but, mostly in different ways.<\/p>\n This here is the perfect example of what\u2019s made existing, these days, so wonderfully and awkwardly uncomfortable.<\/p>\n Let me explain\u2026<\/p>\n <\/p>\n One of the best and the worst parts of the Information Age has not just been the unveiling of political tactics but, the removal of boundaries, the blurred lines, and the melding of cultures, opinions, and individuals we\u2019d, otherwise, never meet or come across until now\u2026<\/p>\n It\u2019s changed everything.<\/p>\n The structures that were once in place have now been removed.<\/p>\n The disempowered are, for the first time in history, being empowered.<\/p>\n Things as complicated as systematic theology are being thrown out the door; what was once deemed sinful is now being praised as acceptable. Bartenders and reality television stars are now replacing politicians. Whistleblowers derailing campaigns.\u00a0Denominational powerhouses are toppling. And,\u00a0the mainstream media is no longer our main source of information.<\/p>\n The information age didn\u2019t cause a divide between you and the people in your social networks. It simply revealed one while simultaneously desimating it[1].<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Amidst all of this change, I would say the toughest aspect of it has been how skewed our social constructs have become. It hasn\u2019t been the revelation of divides between \u201cus\u201d and \u201cthem\u201d but rather, it\u2019s been the removal of these divides forcing us to figure out how to be unified with them as one. It\u2019s as if as soon we realized these divides existed we were immediately forced to figure out how to overcome them.<\/p>\n I mean, it\u2019s brought the surface so many different questions like, if things such as gender, race, sexuality, or nationalism are becoming more and more blurred, nuanced, and\/or placed upon a spectrum then, how does this change our conversation? How does this alter the way we live and interact? Do we retreat back into our silos? Do we seek out the comfort of familiar chambers echoing similar and like-minded sentiments? Or, will we endure the discomfort in what it will take to build bigger tables?<\/p>\n Just think, how many people were so triggered by the opening lines of this post that they weren\u2019t even able to make it this far into the article\u2026<\/p>\n It\u2019s like when we were fighting as kids and our parents were so fed up with us tirelessly and repeatedly putting them in the middle of it they exclaim, \u201cYou two work it out on your own!\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s unfamiliar territory\u2026 At first, it leaves you in shock and, maybe some of us retreated back to our own individual rooms or corners, but eventually (even though we don\u2019t remember it working out) we know that we didn\u2019t stay isolated in our corners for too long; there was a point in which we got bored and ventured back out \u2013 in other words, it all seemed to somehow work itself out.<\/p>\n Although, understandably, adulthood is different; we\u2019re less tolerant, things seem more complicated, the stakes are a bit higher\u2026<\/p>\n <\/p>\n To me, identity politics fall apart at the point in which they do not just create division but they encourage the dehumanization of anyone else who is a threat to your \u201ctribe.\u201d<\/p>\n Similar to hate being learned far too many of these divisions are taught to us.<\/p>\n Whether or not it\u2019s racial (black vs. white), national (Israel vs. Palestine), economic (lower vs upper classes), or religious (Christian vs. Muslim) these divisions are learned constructs; that is, identities handed down to us. What undermines division the most, I believe, is the underlying notion that life is somehow a \u201ccompetition.\u201d It subversively teaches us to think, \u201cour God is more powerful\u2026\u201d or that \u201cour nation or race is the most exceptional and\/or supreme\u2026\u201d the list goes on.<\/p>\n This was probably the most traumatic experience for me, in academia\u2026 That is, going from the conservative evangelical church to the progressive side of the church only to discover that it was the flip side of the same coin: different but, lonelier.<\/p>\n It was unfamiliar territory; entrenched in politics, driven by authoritarianism, fueled by \u201cego,\u201d and completely vacant of empathy.<\/p>\n It was so Machiavellian that the means are simply too exhausting to ever justify any end. It sucks the life out of you and others to regain any sort of \u201cjustice.\u201d<\/p>\n It was also the first time I\u2019d ever learned about this thing called \u201ccritical race theory<\/a> (CRT).\u201d<\/p>\n It was just as confusing and convoluted as it sounds. It\u2019s also the basis of which many others have used to launch platforms based upon the politics of one\u2019s identity. Later on I came to find this is a thing they call, \u201cIdentity Politics\u201d\u2026<\/p>\n \u201cIdentity politics<\/b>\u00a0refers to\u00a0political<\/span><\/a>\u00a0positions based on the interests and perspectives of social groups with which people identify. Identity politics includes the ways in which people\u2019s politics are shaped by aspects of their identity through loosely correlated social organizations[2].\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n They are nothing but political ideologies manipulating vulnerable emotionalities to then be leveraged to win votes, coerce the masses, and then turn us against one another; all the while keeping the powerful in power.<\/p>\n There\u2019s absolutely no life in this.<\/p>\n It\u2019s devoid of empathy. It\u2019s this convoluted idea that (at least within the progressive Church world) in order to help people you must sometimes be willing to also hurt people\u2026 And, mostly, it\u2019s just a game I didn\u2019t want to play.<\/p>\n In order to adhere to the politics\u00a0of identity, I have to agree to play by the rules in which keep us divided.<\/p>\n It took the poor white person struggling in the flyover states and made them into the oppressor; when, in reality they\u2019re just innocent bystanders suffering at the hands of the same powers.<\/p>\n In the words of DJ Khaled,\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s tribalistic in the sense that we\u2019ve so far normalized division that we\u2019ve somehow forgotten we\u2019re all still just people. It was this culture of \u201cus\u201d vs. \u201cthem.\u201d There was this undertone of combativeness from all ends of the discussion. There was this learned form of language and understanding that perpetuated a reactiveness.<\/p>\n \u201cEvil can be opposed without being mirrored. Oppressors can be resisted without being emulated. Enemies can be neutralized without being destroyed.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2013 Walter Wink<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n What if we were all just speaking past each other, miscommunicating, all the while we\u2019re all just saying the same thing but just in very different ways?<\/p>\n What if identity politics as we\u2019ve known them are no longer relevant today in the same way they were yesterday?<\/p>\n It\u2019s disorienting at first but, will we ever reach clarity enough to see that we\u2019re all just people?<\/p>\n The countries both directly above and below us are filled with the same species as us\u2026 humans. They\u2019re not our enemies. They don\u2019t even know you or your family. They\u2019re in the same struggle as you and I. We\u2019re not \u201cexceptional\u201d unless all of us are equally exceptional. We\u2019re not \u201csupreme\u201d unless all of us are supreme.<\/p>\n What if we stepped away from the convoluted talk and academic\/ theological jargon and reminded ourselves of the obvious: we\u2019re all the same..<\/p>\n \u00a0 Where Identity Politics Fall Apart\u2026 \u201cBeware that, when fighting monsters, you yourself do not become a monster.\u201d \u2013 Nietzsche Hypothetically speaking, what if your enemies weren\u2019t really your enemies? What if \u201cthose people\u201d tweeting \u201c#AllLivesMatter\u201d were not trying to negate the fact that #BlackLivesMatter? What if their struggle had more similarities to your struggle […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2493,"featured_media":657925,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,456],"tags":[994,991],"class_list":["post-657853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-politics","tag-critical-race-theory","tag-identity-politics"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/604\/2018\/07\/IMG_1144.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nIdentity politics fall apart at the point in which they do not just create division but they encourage the dehumanization of anyone else who is a threat to your \u201ctribe.\u201d<\/em><\/h2>\n
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It\u2019s almost as if as soon as our pre-pubescent years are over we begin dividing amongst each other. I never<\/p>\n\n
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<\/p>\n\n\n
I mean, pause for one minute and consider this:<\/em><\/h2>\n
[Until next time, hit me up on\u00a0Facebook<\/b><\/span><\/a>\u00a0to follow along with future content of mine]<\/h3>\n
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<\/a><\/p>\n
\n[1] \u201cHow to Deal With Friends<\/a>\u201d Racist Reactions to Ferguson<\/em>\u00a0is a Guest Post from\u00a0JEN\u00c9E DESMOND-HARRIS<\/a><\/strong><\/h6>\n
[2] Wikipedia<\/a> on Identity Politics<\/h6>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"