Multiple Choice Identity
Like many people in America right now, I continue to find myself circling back to the internal conversation of, “What on earth just happened?” Regardless of your political affiliations and secret hopes for Tuesday’s outcome, the ability to genuinely understand the end result is more complicated then even the past few days have afforded us to work out. Understandably for some, the end result is enough and they have already moved on to “What’s next?” rather than stay in “What happened?” The political process allows that right and does not deny future participation on the basis of how much soul searching we engage in today. The simple truth for me is that I have not been able to fit myself into that category.
It is important to preface my following statements with the fact that my disappointment runs deeper than not experiencing this country’s first female president. I can’t avoid having some of my feelings follow this vein, but the longer my internal conversation runs, the more layers I peel back as to why I am so deeply saddened by this election cycle and its ultimate outcome. We are all defined by layers of characteristics and beliefs which associate us with groups and ideas, but the complexity of identity seemed shorn away into the most basic boxes we could check: Gender, race, religion, class, education level--line items that many of us would shirk away from as being far too general to encompass even a drop of who we are as human beings.
In seeking to find voice out of my confusion, I am looking for conversation around why we revert to our most base selves in politics when we would never be satisfied by these labels in our daily lives. I am going to use this space to explore this foundational question in light of the boxes we do check and hope that you will join me in sifting through the complexity of our current situation. I’m not seeking solely agreement because then I have not helped even myself to answer this question, but rather an exchange of ideas as to how we can elevate who we are even when we are faced with the exact opposite of our most treasured ideas.
Thank you for sharing the beginning of this journey with me and I look forward to a willingness to consider that we may overlap in ways we have yet to encounter with people we may feel very separated from after these past few months.