Diversity politics distort the fundamental principle of equality and a clear view of the economic power structure both by offering a fig leaf for the better-off to place between their eyes and naked realities that might shame them, and by dividing those who suffer and giving them the illusion of a degree of empowerment through an identity group.
Feeling Marxist this morning.
But it only goes so far. So despite progress women, disabled people, BME people, older people are still more likely to find themselves in poverty and to face exclusion and disadvantage as a result of both their identity and their low income status. I think it is at this point that identity politics can't make an impact because the issue boils down to class and income inequality.
The language of equality as it is currently used in mainstream politics, as you say is a smokescreen.
Locally to me there's lots of applause over the selection of a black man to run for an Assembly seat, but he is still a priviledged man and this is progress for diversity but not necessarily for the equality of all black people in Wales.
Ditto priviledged and well off women who make it through to the top - it is an achievement but they still had a much better starting point than a woman from a working class family would have.
Money buys power and the rich will act in their own self interest. I hope people are starting to see this but I think they are lost in trying to articulate it and redefine the framework within which they've been viewing the current power structures. Ad astra per aspera
women, disabled people, BME people, older people are still more likely to find themselves in poverty and to face exclusion and disadvantage as a result of both their identity and their low income status.
Certainly not because of higher income status. One could say that the identity struggles of the last half-century have only unambiguously helped the better-off, since they have won recognition and greater freedom insofar as they belong to an otherwise underprivileged identity group. The low or no income earners in those groups have not gained as much. How much have women gained from badly-paid contentless part-time jobs? Black or Asian people, or recent immigrants, from being used to keep wages down at the low end of the workforce? Is it easier today to be an upper-class gay or a working-class gay? How much harder does denial of access to the labour market hit the disabled who need to work, compared to those who are not in material need?
But, as I said:
afew:
That doesn't mean that the recognition of diversity is in itself wrong
just that, as you say, it doesn't go far enough. Diversity politics don't face up to the main problem.
