In this @washingtonpost opinion piece, @CBeltranNYU states: “Multiracial whiteness reflects an understanding of whiteness as a political color & not simply a racial identity… [&] reinforces… colorblind individualism. In the politics of multiracial whiteness, anyone can join…” https://twitter.com/cbeltrannyu/status/1350204497306513408

Non-white conservatives have long frustrated the left’s effort to cast their political disagreements with the right in racial terms. In earlier times, critics given to a racialized worldview would have labeled these outliers honorary whites, Uncle Toms, race traitors, or worse.

Still struggling today to explain political heterodoxy among people of color, modern leftist cognoscenti invent novel euphemistic sobriquets: white adjacency, performative whiteness, borrowed white privilege, and now: multiracial whiteness.

These linguistic contortions are necessitated by the political left’s burdening with moral significance of racial labels like ‘white’ & ‘black’. In particular, the term ‘white’ and its variants have been transformed into slurs or epithets — general labels of evil or immorality.

The term ‘whiteness’ in particular has found gleefully masochistic & sanctimonious advocates on the political left. As it’s most often used today, ‘whiteness’ means something like ‘original sin’ — a congenital moral stain that one can no more overcome than change one’s ancestors.

To those married to superficial identitarian analysis in politics, racial diversity among political groups represents a glaring problem. How can ‘whiteness’ be the defining characteristic of a group of people if non-white people find camaraderie, meaning & purpose in the group?

(A similar dilemma faces those prone to see ‘the patriarchy’ behind political ideas & policies. How can sexism & misogyny explain opposition to abortion, for example, if a greater percentage of women than men identify as pro-life?)

To some extent, the left’s preoccupation with identitarian analysis is motivated by some of best ideals of liberalism: openness to change, self-criticism, and a sincere desire for self-improvement. Well intentioned identitarians see their role as making amends for past wrongs.

Unfortunately, well meaning identitarians unwittingly perpetuate past wrongs by reifying the very prejudices they mean to dismantle.

By focusing on superficial traits rather than ideas & behaviors, they distract from what’s truly important, and lend support to those among the political opposition who also believe that everything is about group identity.

The critical social justice left and the white supremacist right agree that race is one of the most important defining characteristics about people, and that people can & should be judged on the basis of their race.

This is horseshoe theory — the notion that if you go far enough to one political extreme, you’ll encounter the same sorts of crazy ideas popular on the opposite political extreme.

The left’s racial essentialism & incessant railing against the evils of ‘whiteness’ is horribly counterproductive because it emboldens the worst of the identitarian right. But it also alienates egalitarian moderates who are often erstwhile supporters of social justice.

The blacks and Latinos who support Trump don’t do so because they’re self-hating or brainwashed. They do so because they cannot identify with the narratives dominant on the political left — narratives that often cast them as perpetual victims rather than independant individuals.

There is a more effective approach, and it’s one that we know works.

M.L.K. prophetically spoke of his dream — a world wherein people are judged not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.

An egalitarian approach does not have to ignore the socioeconomic discrepancies we see in the world today. On the contrary, it can effectively focus efforts on the basis of actual needs, without making gross generalizations about people on the basis of characteristics like race.

If we heed Dr. King’s words of wisdom, and work steadfastly to treat people equally without regard to their skin color or other immutable characteristics, then we will hasten the arrival the beautiful world of Dr. King’s dream.