I'm no fan of identity politics, no matter if they are right wing or left wing.
I once considered myself left-leaning, just because it was the left that stood for the idea of overcoming traditional and/or arbitrary identities: Your parents were workers? Doesn't mean you can't go to college. Your parents were from Africa? Doesn't mean you can't be German. You're male? Doesn't mean you have to play the strong, silent guy all the time. Where you come from doesn't determine who you will be, if you just try hard enough.
Likewise, I used to believe we should rather work for a world where people's skin color does not determine who they can become, or how they are treated.
But ... I see where certain anti-racist ideas come from: Even if you decide that skin color doesn't matter for you, there are still many people who will treat you in a certain manner, just because of your skin color. And since blacks are a minority in America and whites are the majority, it's more often blacks having to deal with white prejudices than vice versa.
So how can you address this problem, without having to stress skin color/race? It's hard to point people with racist prejudices to their racism, without mentioning race, is it?
However, with this shrill debate atmosphere of today, it more often than not seems to go way overboard, and when the goal once was pointing people to their prejudices, for that they can reflect them, it often seems to have become a kind of chauvinistic pride on the own racial identity. Basically just a copy of white racism, colors reversed.
I don't see how this will create more equality, it's more likely just contributing to more division.
But what can end racism on the long run? My feeling is we need unity: A common shared identity, which includes people regardless of skin color. And this can only be formed by commonality... the more whites and blacks meet and cooperate in everyday life, the more normal it will be for them to live and work together, rather than apart, the more prejudices based on race will vanish.
I once considered myself left-leaning, just because it was the left that stood for the idea of overcoming traditional and/or arbitrary identities: Your parents were workers? Doesn't mean you can't go to college. Your parents were from Africa? Doesn't mean you can't be German. You're male? Doesn't mean you have to play the strong, silent guy all the time. Where you come from doesn't determine who you will be, if you just try hard enough.
Likewise, I used to believe we should rather work for a world where people's skin color does not determine who they can become, or how they are treated.
But ... I see where certain anti-racist ideas come from: Even if you decide that skin color doesn't matter for you, there are still many people who will treat you in a certain manner, just because of your skin color. And since blacks are a minority in America and whites are the majority, it's more often blacks having to deal with white prejudices than vice versa.
So how can you address this problem, without having to stress skin color/race? It's hard to point people with racist prejudices to their racism, without mentioning race, is it?
However, with this shrill debate atmosphere of today, it more often than not seems to go way overboard, and when the goal once was pointing people to their prejudices, for that they can reflect them, it often seems to have become a kind of chauvinistic pride on the own racial identity. Basically just a copy of white racism, colors reversed.
I don't see how this will create more equality, it's more likely just contributing to more division.
But what can end racism on the long run? My feeling is we need unity: A common shared identity, which includes people regardless of skin color. And this can only be formed by commonality... the more whites and blacks meet and cooperate in everyday life, the more normal it will be for them to live and work together, rather than apart, the more prejudices based on race will vanish.