Hostility to Identity Politics

whitepriv

In class today we discussed economic arrangements that perpetuate inequality, and that got us into a bit of discussion about identity politics, white privilege, and so forth. Here’s the op/ed I quoted from, by (conservative) Hoover Institution Fellow Shelby Steele, who is hostile to what he sees as liberal political correctness: “The Exhaustion of American Liberalism.” Whether you agree or disagree with him (and you will surely do one or the other), note the battle lines implied in his critique of liberalism. Americans are not talking much these days about labor unions, or the communists, or military budgets. In 2017, we’re all supposed to be partisans, it seems, in the culture wars.