Finally, someone has said it. Someone has said that identity politics distracts our attention from the far larger issue of socioeconomic inequality. Someone has said that the fashionable and myopic focus on issues of race, sex and genderfluidity is diverting our gaze from the far more important issue of class. That someone is Liz Truss, the equalities minister, and she deserves our praise.
Criticising identity politics is a risky business. Just ask JK Rowling, who is regularly threatened with rape and death for daring to make a very measured critique of transgenderism. Or ask any black commentator who bristles at the idea of critical race theory — he’ll be branded an ‘Uncle Tom’ or worse by armies of hateful Twitter identitarians. I’ve had some of this too. I’ve received hate mail for saying we need to talk more about class rather than focusing obsessively on ‘structural racism’ or the increasingly strange minutiae of gender identity.
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