hvcabiehkv kqerlakreiv. YES!!!

It's who Christ made us and calls us to be.

AMEN

An overrated phenomenon leading to a lot of trouble over the entire course of history?

Of course, my name is Jeroen and that name is therefore part of my identity. I never made it a secret I'm Dutch, since that too is part of my identity, however I must say that I am neither proud nor embarrassed to be Dutch. I just happened to be born out of Dutch parents on Dutch soil. Replace the word Dutch with American and I would have been an American... So that's not really an achievement is it? It is therefore important that although the Dutch nationality did shape me in what I am that does not mean that I am a fan of everything the Netherlands does and stands for.

Identity can quite often get overrated even to the point that it becomes a kind of reason to fight on its own. Having a certain identity does not make you a better or worse person. It gives us a sense of self, and it makes it easier for others to see you for who you are. I don't like having to say "Hey you" simply because I've no idea of who you are and what your name is.

It has a certain kind of importance, but when it gets overrated it can become a source of "evil", and that is what it has become now, and when we see how polarized politics is (not only in the U.S. trust the word of a non-American for that one. We have our own Trump variant and people who hate him and love him and fight each other about that, to name something. And yes identity is a often used term in that fight). When identity becomes a political thing, I always start to frown... Identity is also something that makes us all different, and that's something we should learn to embrace.

I don't know. Do you?

Who you are

What most people call "identity" is what Sartre called "bad faith" and Buddhists call "ego." It's mostly an ignorant, simplistic myth we tell ourselves about what we are. If you define yourself by your race, gender, or nationality, you could use a philosophy class or therapy.

Everyone has a unique identity. No two people’s experiences and beliefs are exactly the same. Identical twins come closest, but even they have differences.

Identity necessarily has a political element. Different groups and classes in society battle over their priorities and resources and values. They form alliances with groups they consider similar and oppose groups they do not.

People often speak about “identity politics” disparagingly. They speak as if talking about concepts like race, gender, sexuality, nationality, etc. flattens people into those characteristics alone and overlooks their uniqueness.

I disagree. The concept of identity is merry a way of helping grasp each others’ backgrounds and perspectives. It isn’t everything but it is something.

The picture of identity can be fleshed out with the concept of intersectionality: the way multiple identities overlap to create new ones.

Consider a middle-class black woman from a small town in the south who went to college and got married in Chicago and now lives in a suburb of LA. Knowing those additional details can help us gain a more complete picture of this person than merely knowing she’s black, or she’s a woman. She’s of course a much more complicated human being than my description grasps. But these details help us gain a sense of what her cultural reference points are and what her political interests might be.

It’s not everything but it’s a start.