All Politics Is Identity Politics

It’s just that when white men do it, it seems normative and when others do it, it seems like rocking the boat

All politics is identity politics, so it makes me a little bit crazy when white guys go on about it as if this is some sort of new-fangled and inappropriate tactic that’s never been done before. Our entire American culture was founded around the lives and interests of white men. Initially, they were the only ones who could be citizens and although we’ve come a long way since the inception of this country, there are still many, many vestiges of that outlook still in place.

White males make up about 30% of the population in the US, but still hold the vast majority of social and economic power and they are still represented in media as being the normative citizen.

• White people and males are the best-represented identity groups on television. White people, for starters, have an 81% “share of screen” — their representation among shows’ top 10 recurring cast members — even though white people make up only 60% of the U.S. population
• Women make up 52% of the U.S. population but appear on TV screens only 38% of the time.
• Men speak 70% of all film dialogue
• And four in five experts cited in online news are male

So when white guys are advocating for the same privileges and cultural centrality they’ve had for hundreds of years, it just seems like keeping the status quo. They are maintaining the culture that has long served their interests and needs and which seems only right to them as mainstream society. As my autistic son Hugh likes to say, he likes things “plain” — meaning how he’s used to and prefers it. Plain = Hugh’s way.

White people, and white men, in particular who talk about identity politics are essentially saying that they want it plain as well. It only seems offensive and out of line when it’s marginalized people advocating for their interests. A fundamental aspect of the dominance hierarchy that our social system is built on is that although those on the higher rungs make up the minority of the population, they still expect the focus to be on them and their needs. After all, they’re at the top of the pyramid.

Sure, wealth, class, education, sexuality, religion and other elements are also factors in this ranking that makes up the dominance hierarchy pyramid — race and gender aren’t the only elements these days. But although not all white men are at the very top of the dominance hierarchy pyramid, nearly everyone who is at the top is a white male. And since this hierarchy is a zero-sum construct, where if you don’t win, you lose, it’s difficult for many people to view other people gaining rights as a loss of some kind to them. A flatter hierarchy rocks the boat. “Hey, what happened to our pyramid?”

It’s only disruptive to society for women or racial groups to advocate for their particular interests because that’s eroding the hierarchy. Sure, we’ve made some progress in the last 50 years, and there are more non-hetero or female or people of color in positions of authority and power than ever before, but as we saw above, they are still largely considered as “other” and an exception. After all, 50 some years ago we still had laws that codified that white men were indeed the true citizens of this country, and even though those laws have changed, the beliefs they enshrined have clearly not completely evaporated. If they had changed significantly, we wouldn’t still have the media statistics that were listed above.

If there were no white male identity politics we’d have proportional representation in our Congress by now. Although we do have the most racially and ethnically diverse Congress we’ve ever had, particularly in the House of Representatives, the US Congress is still 79% white (even though whites make up 60% of the population). Women make up just over a quarter of the Congress, although they make up just slightly more than 50% of the population.

White male identity politics isn’t as effective as it used to be when it had laws that supported it a few short decades ago, but it’s still hanging in there. In fact, we have an entire American industry centered around identity politics that is primarily populated with white men. It’s called lobbying — a whole business centered around people advocating for their interests based on their shared goals with others from their same demographic.

This does sometimes override the interests of white men who aren’t at the tip-top of the pyramid but all white men, no matter their socio-economic status, are still living in a culture that envisions them as the normative citizen and a part of the “in group” none-the-less. Those laws that were on the books just 50 years ago that specifically kept Blacks and women from being full citizens did not get removed out of the goodness of the hearts of those at the apex of the hierarchy. That happened because of the advocacy of those who had a vested interest in joining together to demand for that to take place.

And what many of these guys (and it’s usually guys) who are clamoring against identity politics fail to realize is that a fairer culture would also provide great benefit to the economy as a whole. A more egalitarian society with fewer artificial barriers to success would actually be good for everyone.

Because it prevents people from making the most of their economic potential, systemic racism carries significant economic costs. A less racist society can be an economically stronger one.

For instance, the wealth gap between American whites and Blacks is projected to cost the US economy between $1 trillion and $1.5 trillion in lost consumption and investment between 2019 and 2028. This translates to a projected GDP penalty of 4 to 6 percent in 2028 (Noel and others 2019).

Entrenched beliefs about the capabilities and commitment of women to their work-lives also costs both individual entities as well as the nation as a whole on an economic level as well. If the talent pool is being artificially repressed or underutilizied due to subconscious adherence to the dominance hierarchy, that costs us.

These imbedded mindsets are often institutional as well as individual — and difficult to eradicate. A CEO’s personal crusade to change behavior does not scale. A diversity program by itself, no matter how comprehensive, is no match for entrenched beliefs. Targeting behavioral change generally leads only to an early burst of achievement followed by reversion to old ways.

Our evidence points to the need for systemic, organizational change. Companies that aspire to achieve sustained diversity balance must choose to transform their cultures. Management needs a powerful reason to believe such as the potential competitive and economic advantage from retaining the best talent.(from all demographics, not just the “traditional” sources — emphasis mine)

Aren’t those things worth talking about and problem solving around? And shouldn’t those who are being disadvantaged in ways that are still deeply imbedded in our culture have every right to keep pointing out that it needs to be addressed and to keep demanding better? The data is all out there. As far as we’ve come, we still have a highly unequal society by a wide variety of metrics. Pretending like anyone continuing to bring that up is actually the problem is a tactic meant to silence those who are challenging the status quo.

After all, if our society has spent hundreds of years keeping certain groups of people from having equal rights, equal access to citizenship, and equal opportunities to work, live, and associate, how can we now expect those people not to advocate for redress to that as a group — particularly since that is the only way that anything has ever improved for them?

All politics is identity politics, and marginalized groups asking for and getting fewer barriers to opportunity would actually benefit everyone — unlike a lot of straight white male identity politics. It’s only because so many are still so deeply entrenched in the dominance hierarchy zero-sum mindset that it’s hard for them to recognize that a rising tide lifts all boats.

More fairness, fewer artificial barriers, less subconscious bias — that would be good for our nation as a whole, not just the marginalized groups who are advocating for it (and their allies.) But if you care more about your cultural centrality than you do about human rights, to say nothing of economic prosperity, by all means, keep on complaining about how identity politics is ruining the world. Then you can go back to focusing on your own identity politics — the one that maintains the culture that seems to work better for you and your interests.

© Copyright Elle Beau 2021 Elle Beau writes on Medium about sex, life, relationships, society, anthropology, spirituality, and love. If this story is appearing anywhere other than Medium.com, it appears without my consent and has been stolen.