Identity politics are born of racism and slavery, time to reject them.
In a nation still so obsessed with race such as ours, where “white nationalism” and neo-Nazi buffoons still roam around making trouble, it is hard to imagine a time when the very concept meant something almost entirely different. Yet history shows us that before slavery grew in economic importance in the Americas, the clearest separation between groups of human beings was religion and nationhood. Europeans in particular, killing each other over the centuries as was their custom, saw themselves as vastly different peoples with completely divergent origins and destinies. It was only Christianity that united them, and even that was torn asunder in the barbarity of the 30 Years War. The very idea of a “white” race is an invention of the late 17 th century, created out of a need to prevent converted slaves from using their new-found Christianity to escape bondage. Soon after the founding of our nation and again as a means to protect slavery the Naturalization Act of 1790 made beco...