Race, Racism, and Identity Politics

by Douglas V. Gibbs
Author, Speaker, Instructor, Radio Host

Definition of identity politics: Politics in which groups of people having a particular racial, religious, ethnic, social, or cultural identity tend to promote their own specific interests or concerns without regard to the interests or concerns of any larger political group.

Although the UCLA center's standards promoted rigorous history, they set off a major culture war because of their relentless emphasis on identity politics.— Diane Ravitch

Identity politics is contemporary shorthand for a group's assertion that it is a meaningful group; that it differs significantly from other groups; that its members share a history of injustice and grievance; and that its psychological and political mission is to explore, act out, act on and act up its group identity.— Catharine R. Stimpson

“Identity politics.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/identity%20politics. Accessed 19 Apr. 2022.

Dictionary

Definitions from Oxford Languages

vir·tue sig·nal·ing

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noun

noun: virtue signalling; noun: virtue signaling

1. the action or practice of publicly expressing opinions or sentiments intended to demonstrate one's good character or the moral correctness of one's position on a particular issue.

   "it's noticeable how often virtue signaling consists of saying you hate things"

Based on basic dictionary definitions the world of the progressive left and their political thrust against American Society the description of what they are up to is as follows:

As members of a particular group or identity people have been programmed to have a belief system that they will stand behind without any consideration regarding the interests or concerns of anyone who does not exist within their bubble of belief or identity.  However, since saying you are right and everyone else is wrong has been historically frowned upon as being narcissistic or arrogant, they justify their actions or words by expressing it in such a way that signals they have good character or are morally correct and their position or belief simply is an outgrowth of that good character or moral correctness.  In the process, however, due to the extreme identifiers attached to everything they do or say, and so as to ensure a solid rejection of anything that opposes their position or belief, they reject any opposition and even go so far as to verbalize that their opponents must be the opposite extreme and are even "haters", or they must be hated, shunned, and even silenced in order for progress to be achieved based on the foundation of the belief system they believe to be so correct that the interests or concerns of any opposition must be rejected and censored into non-existence.

Let's examine the identifiers one by one.

Racism: Fist let's take a look at the 2022 definition of racism.

1: a belief that race is a fundamental determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race.

2a: the systemic oppression of a racial group to the social, economic, and political advantage of another.

b: a political or social system founded on racism and designed to execute its principles.

“Racism.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/racism. Accessed 19 Apr. 2022.

All of the examples after each of the definitions go after "white supremacy" or other current trends in modern dialogue regarding racism, but I want to leave those opinions to the side, for a moment, just to examine this item at its foundational basic set of roots.

Let's take a look at some older definitions, shall we?

The World Book Dictionary, 1987 Edition, #24 L-Z, page 1718, provides:

racism. n. 1. the belief that a particular race, especially one's own, is superior to other races.  2. discrimination or prejudice against a race or races based on this belief.  3. a political or social policy or system against a race or races based on this belief.

Similar, but different.  The World Book definition leans a little less heavy on accusations that white people are the problem when it comes to the different shades of skin battling it out, but the inference mildly remains.  The idea that anyone acts in such a manner because of the color of their skin is absent.

I wonder if the older definitions get closer to the real meaning, with a little less subjectivity?

Let's take a look at Webster's Dictionary, 1978, page 302.

race n. the descendants of a common ancestor; distinct variety of human species; a peculiar breed as of horses, etc.; lineage; descent.

Then, after the noun, it provides the adverb:

racialism, racism n. animosity shown to peoples of different race.

Very curious.  The dictionary from the seventies, even though it was published shortly after the end of a tumultuous civil rights period in the history of the United States, remained objective in its definition.  Racism is simply animosity shown to peoples of a different race.  Notice, also, that "racism" didn't reside in its own category, it was lumped with "race".

I don't have with me my dictionaries from the 1950s and 1930s at the moment, so let's go all the way back to the first one.  Webster's dictionary, 1828, no page number provided.  Notice, there is no word for racism in that dictionary, but we do have one for the word "race".

After referring to "race" as being to run, the following is offered:

RACE: n. 1. The lineage of a family, or continued series of descendants from a parent who is called the stock.  A race is the series of descendants indefinitely.  Thus all mankind are called the race of Adam; the Israelites are of the race of Abraham and Jacob.  Thus we speak of a race of kings, the race of Clovis or Charlemagne; a race of nobles, &c. [that last paring of an ampersand and the letter "c" meaning et cetera].

2. A generation; a family of descendants.

3. A particular breed; as a race of mules; a race of horses; a race of sheep.

Interesting.

Race originally meant lineage in humans, not necessarily different color skin or ethnicity.  However, such a division was placed on the animal kingdom, listing that race meant different breeds in animals.

I wonder at what point the definition that applies to animals was applied to humans.  Larger, yet; why would a definition that applied to animals be applied to humans in the first place?  If we are all the race of Adam then that means we come from the same stock, we are all created equal.  To change race, with science, to Caucasian, Mongoloid, and Negroid would be to say we are not one human race and descendants from Adam.  In other words, we are three different groups, distinct, different, perhaps battling for position.

Perhaps science's way of trying to downplay God and Creation.

By separating everyone from race of Adam into three races, and now into hundreds since ethnicity, nationality, and even minority religions are lumped into the term "racism", it kind of reminds me of the old military tactic, "Divide and Conquer".

In short, what's going on now is the culmination of centuries of planning, positioning, and scheming to divide us and set us against each other.  Those who have fallen for it, to be frank, are tools that can't think beyond the tip of their nose.  They've fallen for the ruse, and their gullible minds are angry and lashing out without realizing that is exactly what they've been programmed to do...like a bunch of animals.

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