2479
by losthighway
This gets a little into the weeds, but I'm going to take a risk and try and put some of my recent thoughts into words and encourage anyone to rip into them- thoughtfully- where they are misguided.
We came out of a LONG post Civil Rights Amendment period where the popular perception was that anti-racism was color blindness. Most people hated hate, tried "not to see color" and felt great about themselves. I don't know if later (painfully late) developments with gay rights could be grouped in with that or not.
Leading up to- and peaking with- BLM there was a growing understanding amongst privileged allies that the above is bullshit because the system is rigged and that there is no form of passive anti-racism because of too many systemic factors. With this conversation, ideas about intersectionality, amplifying minority voices- lots of healthy cultural progress that also contained all of the side effects of circular firing squads, woke performative social media battles etc.
None of this is done, but it seemed to me that while the cultural conversation needed to continue, the policy makers could rarely tether themselves to a culture war in a way that felt authentic, or could be understood by enough of whomever their electorate was. We look to someone like Sanders, or some of Biden's better post-Covid policies (inspired and/or co-written by Sanders) to see how broadly enhancing the country's supports for all disenfranchised people does more that loudly championing one particular demographic.
I feel like Harris is trying to continue that. She's not really playing identity politics as hard as some have in the recent past because I don't think they were a great avenue for winning elections, or even necessarily helping the people they represent in a concrete way. But I think her people are all really adept at pointing out when someone like Trump says something cringeworthy in their attempt to enter that cultural war. I hope that someone like Harris is as trustworthy to the trans community as I think she is. Some days it feels like a bare minimum respect for the rights of LGBTQ+ is just kind of baked into being a garden variety democrat, at least at a policy level, but I know better than to trust my take on that. The most I really know comes from the comments of my gay and trans friends, my life is too easy in that department for me to speak with certainty.
I don't know if this analysis is fully accurate, and I don't know where it leads, but it seems to me that there has been a shift in the last 5-odd years or so. I hope that it's not a roll back to don't-ask-don't-tell, or "I don't see race", but rather a more thoughtful synthesis between the two preceding phases of that dialogue.