This One Tweet Illustrates Everything Wrong With Identity Politics

If you want to see identity politics on display in all of its deranged glory, check out this tweet from The Hill:

“Openly gay Dem wins House primary, would be first Native American woman elected to Congress.”

The Washington Post had something similar for its headline:

“Democrats pick gay, Native American nominee in Kansas 3rd.”

Let’s leave aside the fact that Elizabeth Warren is already the first Native American woman elected to Congress. The larger point is that the woman’s actual name is left out of the tweet and the headline to make room for a long series of labels. Unintentionally, The Hill and the Post have illustrated the great irony of identity politics: it deprives you of identity.

The congressional candidate — Sharice Davids is her name, by the way — has been reduced to a collection of classifications. She is not a human being named Sharice Davids. She is merely a mascot for the rather obscure Gay Native American Woman team. Her victory is a victory for the team, not for herself as an individual. Her particular characteristics and talents are of secondary importance to her membership in her victim group. Her achievements are absorbed into the group, as if the group, and not she, had won the race.

Read more at the Daily Wire.