In my first quarter here at UCLA, I have quickly come to realize that elite college campuses, including our own, are hotspots for the development of identity politics.
We see this in special-interest fraternities, racial and cultural student groups, the LGBT Campus Resource Center, discriminatory hiring processes and most poignantly, the multitude of anti-Donald Trump rallies that have been carried out on campus since the election. Yes, West Coast states may reliably ring blue, but college campuses have sung the song of liberalism and diversity mightier and louder than any other institution. There is a reason Hillary Clinton secured a major lead among the young and educated in last year’s election.
But while the focus on multiculturalism in college is important in reversing the effects of oppression in marginalized communities, the almost obsessive preoccupation with diversity in liberal circles has fractured and divided our politics. In fact, colleges can implicitly discriminate against faculty who hold conservative worldviews. The emphasis of identity politics comes at a great cost – it means leaving behind anyone who doesn’t explicitly fit our goals of social progressivism and radical reform. This must change if we hope to make any progress as a society in the age of Donald Trump.
It doesn’t take much to see that campuses are really echo chambers for diversity-based liberalism. In our fixation with secularism and feminism, we have alienated ourselves from the rest of the country. Yes, black, Muslim and transgender lives are important, but I fear that our obsession with celebrating diversity and identity politics has cultivated a form of righteous superiority that shelters us from American realities somewhere else.
Being a champion for black lives, women’s rights and queer voices has elevated our social consciousness, and we feel good when we campaign for multiculturalism and sexual liberation. But while we do so, we conceitedly brand all our opponents as backward, bigoted and morally corrupted. We look upon them with pity and contempt, as we chant the overused tune of a version of liberalism that is as illiberal as it is exclusive.
In fact, this seeming preoccupation with diversity has had far-reaching influence beyond just college campuses. Issues revolving around multiculturalism and intersectionality have taken center stage in leftist politics, social activism and mainstream media. For the past decades, we have witnessed the Democratic Party serving as the main political mouthpiece for these various groups. This wouldn’t be a problem, except that the party also thought it was acceptable to downplay its once cherished ideal of economic populism, giving rise to an increasingly discontented middle class.
In a separate but ideologically similar arena, journalists – independent and commercial – have patted themselves on the back for shifting the spotlight to Islamophobia and the anger of people of color. Issues like affirmative action, gender-neutral bathrooms and Trump’s loudmouthed tendencies have dominated national conversation, while income stagnation and irresponsible trade deals have been relegated to the backseat.
These issues, and not racism, lost us liberals the last election. For some people, a moral high ground surrounding diversity is secondary to more palpable concerns like paying for their child’s next meal. And these people aren’t just white males, as we like to tell ourselves. They are women, Hispanics and black people who prioritize their children’s lives over their own fight for institutionalized injustices. We can’t expect others to share our worries about gender pronouns and political correctness when they are grappling every day with worsening economic injustice and stolen jobs.
Yes, we have suffered a history of abuse in the hands of the white patriarchy, who undoubtedly were the first to weaponize identity politics to silence and oppress us. But we cannot continue to force all white people to apologize for being white, just as we cannot continue to utilize identity politics as the face of liberalism because of its narrow and fragmentizing nature. If we put aside our prejudices for a minute, we can see that most Americans share the same valid concerns and fears. We fear terrorism, both homegrown and abroad. We fear losing well-paying, dignified jobs and the widening chasm of income that separates us from tax-dodging Wall Street capitalists. We fear losing our loved ones to gun violence.
I am not saying that identity politics serves no use in developing liberal solutions to real American problems. Issues surrounding marginalized communities often have great effect on the rest of the country. Promoting equality in the workplace for women also means greater familial benefits and support for paternal care. Shifting the focus from racial profiling of Muslims at airports to actual characteristics of security threats will save lives. Creating new industries for alternative energy will create jobs – real, dignified labor.
We just need to realize that commonalities, not differences, form the strongest bedrock upon which liberalism can thrive. Allowing identity politics to take center stage prevents liberalism from serving as the unifying energy that once rippled across America.
We need to stop aggressively pursuing a political mandate driven by identity politics. Instead, we need to start rebuilding the bridges we burned and begin to unite around common goals that we know we all share. While racial and gender identity will continue to prove integral in our battle for political representation and freedom, we cannot build a narcissistic brand of liberalism and then act surprised and betrayed when voters leave us for something that actually echoes their beliefs.
Ng is an undeclared first-year student.
Jordi has excellent writing skills but I believe he is naive if he believes that racism is not immoral.
They*. Don’t assume their gender.