It takes discipline to resist the temptation of identity politics and rely on character. But it’s worth it
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Character. I’ve been thinking about that word a lot lately, especially since Monday was the day we celebrated birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. It was also the day of the inauguration of President Donald Trump. Hardly a day goes by without someone quoting to me perhaps King’s most famous words about the fact that a man should not be judged by the color of his skin but by the content of his character. However, are we really practicing to see character these days?
I say practice because it is a skill. No skill is required to claim the identity of immutable characteristics. All one has to do is step into the politics of that particular identity and speak in its pre-approved clichés. It also takes no skill to make a snap judgment based on someone’s unchanging characteristics. This requires nothing less than ignoring the individuality of the person in front of you and attaching yourself to every stereotype that comes with that particular identity.
We see this behavior all too often in the septic tank social media and from our so-called opinion leaders who sit at podcast microphones whipping up outrage to line their pockets with clickbait money. The irony is that many of them tell us to see character, yet they practice the opposite.
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Watching someone’s character doesn’t make money.
Even I was asked by others to see color first. When I was on the roof of a building raising funds for my community center, we heard about how a white neighborhood in North Chicago had to hire security guards after George Floyd protests because there was violence.
As we were preparing to shoot that story for Fox, several people came up to me and insisted that we should do a story about white men finally getting a taste of the violence that was plaguing our neighborhood. I objected. This was not racial to me. It was a downward spiral into which the values of our city were descending. I left race out of it and produced what I believed to be a far better and more insightful story.
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It takes discipline to resist the temptation of identity politics and delve deeper into the character of a person or even the character of a society at a given moment. When you do this, you often arrive at a deeper and deeper meaning that is closer to the truth. This should not be surprising because character is a human truth.
We live in the United States of America and that should mean something. If I learned anything from King and his long struggle for civil rights, it was a lesson about striving to be human, an individual. These foot soldiers of his often carried signs that read: “I am the Man.” This was the very essence of our struggle and what was denied us under centuries of brutal oppression.
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So why would I betray King for the low-class instant gratification of playing identity politics? I disciplined myself to walk the path of character and that choice brought me many fruits.
Today I am in the middle of building a $45 million community center where our focus and the foundation of everything we do will be character. My neighborhood may be mostly black but we are raising men and women of character and I hope they become so successful that their names mean something to you one day.
