The Identity Obsession

In what is probably the most moving piece of oratory in my lifetime, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”  Jim Crow is dead.  African-Americans, or whatever moniker is preferred these days, occupy, or have occupied, positions of great cultural, social and political influence – up to and including the presidency.  And yet we are as far, perhaps farther, from Dr. King’s dream than we have ever been.  We live in a culture obsessed with identity as defined by skin color in many instances, but also gender, place of origin, etc., etc.  Our educational system no longer seeks to develop character as they seem to feel that what constitutes good character is subject to one’s chosen identity.  Can you get farther from Dr. King’s dream?

Two stories drive this home with remarkable clarity.  The first is the story of a recent awardee of a National Book Award:

Among the many woke winners of this year’s prestigious National Book Awards is a black Columbia University professor whose screed attacks “white paint” as racist.

Professor Wendy Walters’ new book, “A Dead White: An Argument Against White Paint,” claims that white paint is not the “neutral” architectural design element that it initially appears to be.

Instead, she “interrogates all that we have taken for granted about the substance that colors, or fails to color, the structures and objects that surround us—and what the collective impulse toward white paint can tell us about culture, politics, and individual desire,” the publisher’s description states, in part.

Yeah, well, I “interrogated” this story and find this woman obsessed with race to the point of not being able to think straight.  Have you been to the paint section of the Home Depot lately and looked at the color selections?  There are literally 100’s of shades of white!  Which ones are racist and which are not?  Are people who do not choose to paint their interior white being lynched or otherwise excluded from society?  What utter drivel.

The dictionary defines racism, “ a belief that race is a fundamental determinant of human traits and capacities.”  That doesn’t say anything about what color the walls are.  This woman is obsessed with race and that’s all there is to it.

Second story, a Jewish woman has been pretending to be Palestinian, and now she has been “outed.”  This story is just nuts.  “Gann also spoke with what stunned critics called a “blaccent” which was audible across her numerous preachy Instagram videos where she lectured about racism and imperialism, all from her supposedly personal experience.”  Maybe she thought she was Kamala Harris?  “She also successfully solicited money by claiming she was broke because of sending cash to her relatives in Palestine, according to the PPC.”  Nope, just a con artist.  So much for character.

Mental health is a spectrum, and this woman has become so obsessed with identity that she has moved well down towards the unhealthy end of that spectrum.

From a cultural standpoint the biggest change wrought by Jesus earthly ministry was the erasure of the lines between Jew and Gentile.  As the Apostle Paul said in his letter to the church in Galatia, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”  And yet here we are drawing lines, in ways that border on mental illness, that Jesus died to do away with.

Unsurprisingly, Dr. King’s dream aligned with God’s intention.  In the ensuing years, years that pretty well constitute my lifetime, that dream and God’s intent have been twisted, bent, mutilated and perverted into something almost exactly opposite.

Why do we struggle so hard against God’s intentions?  It never works out.

Addendum: The hits just keep on coming in this department.