Photos: Give Cures Campaign Launch

Identity politics comes from the natural human tendency to bond with people who look and act like you. It’s human instinct to connect with your own. On an emotional level there’s nothing wrong with that. In fact those emotional ties become building blocks for society. Identity becomes problematic when we simply do not just accept and celebrate our diversity but when the differences seem to become important, even overwhelming factors in how we vote. While it is understandable that race, class, gender, ethnicity, and religion are factors and railing against them counting is like objecting to gravity, it should disturb us when these categories pass being factors and become determiners.