any politics that asks for blank endorsement based on group identity and downplays that within-group diversity is a bunch of steaming crap that stinks equally bad in any group; and - that conveying the above to many of my liberal/progressive/left comrades is more difficult than I initially thought.
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No doubt.
Some years ago a community activist friend, a smart, socially involved woman, came to me for advice regarding a puzzling issue.
Apparently, some of the Black folks she worked with (among the helpees, not the helpers) made unkind comments about Gays and unexpectedly approving statements in support of what some call a 'muscular' US foreign policy and others simply call bombing. There were other, equally disturbing (for her) examples.
Since I'm chocolatey goodness and, presumably, at least somewhat knowledgeble about matters Negro, she turned to me to explain it all or failing that, offer one guy's perspective.
At first, I was confused by her confusion. After all, these ideas and habits of thought are pretty common amongst Americans in general, why should the browner subjects of the polygot sort-of-empire be exempt?
Several minutes of back and forth debate later, all became clear. You see, she believed, really and truly believed, that African Americans, descendents of slaves, victims of kluxer terrorism and targets of Jim Crow, etc, etc, were incapable of having political views outside of the 'progressive' frame.
"Well," I said, "aside from the issue of racial fairness you'll find a very wide range of views on a variety of topics. Even the meaning of racial fairness is hotly debated, quiet as it's kept. Some folks, for example, wouldn't give a rat's ass if we dated while others would be about as upset as any cross burner. There are lots of other examples of strong conservatism and counter-conservatism in the community."
This really threw her world view into a self-limiting chaos spiral. It was, to say the least, a difficult idea for her to grasp. She was working on behalf of these downtrodden people, the dispossessed, the urban wretched of the earth. Surely these, the least of the Autarch's children, were morally superior to the teeth whitening, property value obsessed suburbanites from which she sprang and of one mind on issues of 'justice'?
I suggested a vigorous make out session to calm her unsteady nerves (listen, I'm a scientist, it's all for science baby) but it was no good: the lady demanded answers.
Days turned into weeks, weeks into months. Finally, she understood: all people do not think alike. No, not even people who share a group affiliation of one sort or another.
She's embarassed by it all now and looks back at her self of a few years ago with a bit of disdain. I tell her to be at ease. Achieving escape velocity from racism comes in stages. For her, the first was turning traditional tropes on their head: black became all good and white mostly bad. The next stage was tossing that silliness aside to discover and accept complexity.
DRM