occasional reflections on culture & politics
I. Identity politics is bad, or so it goes. Everybody should be treated as an individual, judged on their own merits, and without any consideration of group identity, history, present politics, representation etc. In theory, that certainly sounds good. We are indeed all individuals. Whatever group we may belong to should also be our choice,… Continue reading #210: Why (Some Degree of) Identity Politics is Necessary
We live in a world where it has become embarrassing to admit adherence to racial or ethnic discrimination. That does not mean that racism is gone, far from it, but people who harbor xenophobic or racist thoughts have learned how to hide them behind something possibly more justifiable. Anti-immigrant sentiment and racism can be hidden… Continue reading #198: LGBTQ Rights are Human Rights
Whoopi Goldberg said something incredibly and shockingly ignorant about the Holocaust. She revealed, in fact, how a very peculiar and narrow understanding of race in America prevents a more thorough and global discussion of difference, discrimination, ethnicity, racism and genocide in the world. It is a wide-spread problem, and it was unfortunate to see it… Continue reading #134: If People Apologize for Their Mistake, They Should Not Be Cancelled
Hatred against people who may be identified as “Asian” has come into the focus in the recent days. Sadly, this is not a new phenomenon, but the attacks seem to have increased in the recent years. This surely may be influenced by the role China’s government has played in enabling the pandemic. But we need… Continue reading #85: Anti-Asian Hate and the Human Capacity for Divisiveness
Democracy means that every single citizen can participate in politics. This means voting, running for office, serving in office, contributing and shaping the political discourse, and educating each other about the needs of our various communities, stakeholders, interest groups, and about the world around us. This is a collaborative enterprise, it needs all of us,… Continue reading #51: The Politics of Division Cannot Work
When we promote diversity, what does that mean? As laid out previously, the support for diversity is a matter of equity, of justice. We are already a diverse society qua populace and history, but how this maps onto some domains of life can be seen as not as equitable as it should. If some individuals… Continue reading #36: Diversity Is Democracy, and It Is Not a Zero-Sum Game
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