The Virtue of the "Historically Marginalized"

The Supreme Court closed out its term this past week with a number of high profile cases.  Two of these cases, Students for Fair Admissions  and the 303 Creative LLC.  cases were about lawful and unlawful discrimination.  In Students' , the Court ruled that colleges and universities violated the 14th Amendment's Equal Protection Clause, essentially stating that affirmative action admission policies unfairly discriminated against students on the basis of race.  In the Creative LLC  case, the Court ruled that an individual could not be compelled to engage in speech that violates their conscience, thus allowing an individual to discriminate against another on the basis of their protected freedom of speech.

Both cases got the Left foaming at the mouth and calling for judicial reforms, court packing, and all of the other typical hissy-fit dramatics one expects from the Left when they don't get their way.  Much of what you hear from those on the Left is that these cases are a step backwards for "historically marginalized" groups and their access, opportunity, and their ability to live out the American dream will be diminished.  Moreover, it is just another example of the white supremacy and homophobia conservatives want to mandate into our lives.  

While I think that is all theatrics and rhetoric, the conversations and dialogue around these cases has me thinking about the Left's victim based ideology which is rooted in a neo-Marxist perspective that there are two categories of people: the oppressed and the oppressor.  The former is a person of color (some exceptions apply to Asians: see below), women, homosexuals, transgenders, immigrants, and non-Christians.  This group is often called the "historically marginalized.  The later group is typically white, male, and Christian.

Can’t wait until she reads that you gladly carried the water for white supremacy and stabbed the folks in the back whose people fought diligently for Asian American rights in America. https://t.co/JA1iTp6A6I

— Jemele Hill (@jemelehill) July 1, 2023

 

The central theme and purpose of the Left's ideological position is to "help" theses historically marginalized groups overcome their oppression.  By carving out this position, it provides the Left with a feeling of moral superiority and a sense of self-righteousness that often oozes from their virtue-signaling insecurities.  But like many things the Left promotes, the unintended consequences of their approach usually results in very little in the way of progress, outside of increasing feelings of their own moral superiority.  

The real results of the Left's identity politics are often corrosive and destructive to both the individual and a democratic society.  It is not the different side of the same coin, rather, it is exactly the same side of the same coin as the attitude that wrought slavery and Jim Crow.  Because the Left claims they are trying to right the previous wrong, it somehow absolves them of this discriminatory attitude and behavior.  But all it actually does it make racial identity the most important attribute to an individual and prevents racial animus from ever dissipating from our culture.

The obvious and often pointed out issue with the Left's way of thinking is that it essentially reduces the individual to a demographic category.  No longer are they individuals, but  instead, belong to an almost monolith group where they collectively the same in desire, intellect, and values.  Their individual abilities and character are not as important as the superficial category they have been identified as.  Humans are too complex to allow this sort of thinking to take place.

However, in the matrix of the Left wing identity political perspective is the fact that these "historically marginalized" groups are also incentivized to be perpetual victims of the past, and the ever lurking oppression of the future. Words like marginalized, oppressed, harm, violence, micro aggression, white supremacy, systemic racism, institutional racism, are all used in service to portraying them as victims.  And when anecdotal evidence is available to support the claims, it dominates the main stream media news cycle.  Conversely, when hard data shows the opposite, it is memory holed and never discussed.    

Victim status also incentivizes finding new oppressions, real or imagined to help maintain the privileged status of the marginalized.  Much of the data surrounding the violence and danger that the LGBTQ crowd, is often unverifiable or so fraught with statistical error that it should never be used in any real sense.  It also pushes people to stage hate crimes to prove that society is still racists and a dangerous place for people of color, women, LGBTQ, and others (long list).  Its the kind of thinking that triggers people to lose their mind over pro-noun usage, as they sit in their car, with their blue hair, and cry into the camera as they make a TikTok about how oppressed they are.  When you're identity is a victim, you make yourself a victim in every situation. 

Perhaps the most insidious results of the Left's approach to identity politics is the virtue of the marginalized.  By merely occupying one of these special categories of the "historically marginalized," a person becomes a virtuous person outside anything they have done.  While I cringed with anger watching the cop kneel on the back of George Floyd, I also cringed with him being lionized by the Left and the media.  The narrative was that Floyd was a person of character and goodness, despite his eight arrests, threatening a pregnant woman with a gun, and being under the influence of fentanyl.  This narrative of his character was based solely on him being black. The same is true of Michael Brown and Jacob Blake.  Our Secretary of Transportation, Pete Buttigieg, became a viable presidential candidate and landed a cabinet position based largely, if not entirely, on the fact that he is gay.  A straight, white, male mayor of the thriving metropolis of South Bend would have never garnered that much attention.  Same goes for Kamala Harris.  Anyone with any objectivity and ounce of honesty will admit that she is incompetent and did nothing to earn her position from being a heart beat away from the most important job in America, other than the fact that she is a woman, and of color.  How many transgendered folks, especially those who become women, have been lauded with praise and have even won awards (this one too) for being a woman?  The Left goes out of its way to make a narrative that presents "historically marginalized" as people of virtue.

Society does this with other categories as well.  Teachers, law enforcement, military, farmers, and doctors are often romanticized by society and held in great esteem.  While these professions are noble, and many virtuous people hold them, I also know that a many of those people are not virtuous or worthy of honor.  The virtue is in how they conduct themselves in those roles, not just being in the role.   
As a result of creating this false sense of virtue and character for merely being a "historically marginalized" group is that many in these groups can creates false sense of importance and entitlement.  When you are told that your value and worth are tied to alleged mistreatment and oppression, you may or may not have actually endured, and, that it gives you access and privileges, the natural consequence is to ensure it's continuance  It's similar to the famous "Blue Eye Study" that was done by an elementary teacher in Iowa to help educate her white students learn about racisms and illustrate the challenges of being black in America.  Student's who told their eye color made them superior or special, gained a sense of authority and power they did not earn, leading them to act in awful ways to the "inferior" colored eye group.  We are seeing this same thing happening now, except it's not eye color, it's victim status.  Talk about irony! 

The same thing happens with the professions I listed earlier.  As an educator, I can tell you that a quite of few teachers think pretty highly of themselves due to the narrative about teachers.  This often results in very entitled and arrogant attitudes and behaviors.  Just ask secretaries and janitors how they think some teachers view themselves!!! 

Listen, if we ever want to create a more harmonious society, one in which we care very little, if at all, about a person's skin color, nationality, or other demographic category, we have to start by stopping.  Stop using race as the most important factor of one's identity.  Stop making any and every situation about race.  Stop assuming that a person's race includes monolithic set of values, traits, and expectations.  The problem is that too many have found their identity, their purpose, and even their paycheck tied to the racial contentiousness of our culture to let our culture realize MLK's dream of being judges by the "content of our character".  And there is no virtue in that!