Column: Campaigns flood us with reductive racial rhetoric. How can we push back?
Let’s face it: When white people talk about the “race problem” in America, they’re talking about blacks, poor people, and immigrants who don’t pay their fair share.
When white people talk about the “gender problem,” they’re talking about trans women of color. When white people talk about “the LGBTQ problem” in America, they’re talking about trans lesbians and gay men. All of which have been on-going problems for decades if not centuries.
The point is that these problems — and their solutions — are multifaceted and nuanced. And they’re rooted in our very political, economic, social and cultural systems.
But the left is just as prone to scapegoating as any other group when it comes to race and gender. And when it comes to race and gender, the left is as quick to play the role of racist or gender-specific as it is to play the role of anti-racist or anti-sexist.
“Racial Theology” and “Racial Equality”
Last week, the left was out on a campaign against the Trump administration’s proposed rule to allow religious organizations to exempt themselves from Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits gender-based discrimination in the workplace.
The Department of Labor has proposed allowing religious groups to exempt themselves from Title VII in order to “provide full and equal access” to services, “promote their faith, values and mission,” and “provide religious exemptions from employment laws.”
“If the Department adopts this proposal, it will give the Obama administration’s Office of Civil Rights more power to crack down on Christian groups that do not want to provide their workers with a minimum level of equality,” said Jeh Johnson, the president’s Labor secretary, when the rule came up for a period of comment last month.
But while black women and trans women are victims of discrimination, they’
