Resisting the temptation of identity politics and building character requires self-discipline. but it’s worth it

Features. I’ve been thinking about this word a lot lately, especially since Monday is the day we commemorate Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday. This day also marks the inauguration of President Donald Trump. Almost every day someone quotes to me perhaps King’s most famous quote about not judging a man by the color of his skin but by the content of his character. However, are we really practicing looking at character now?

I say practice because it is a skill. No tricks are required to claim an identity with immutable characteristics. All one has to do is intervene in the politics of this particular identity and speak in its pre-approved clichés. Nor does it require skill to make a snap judgment based on someone’s immutable characteristics. This is nothing more than ignoring the personality of the person in front of you and making them adhere to every stereotype associated with that particular identity.

We see this behavior all the time in the cesspools of social media and from so-called thought leaders who sit behind podcast microphones and fan the flames of outrage, lining their own pockets with clickbait money. The irony is that many of them tell us to see character, but they do exactly the opposite.

Martin Luther King Jr. commemoration and Trump inauguration: What this historic day means for America

You can’t make money based on your character.

Even I am asked by others to see the color first. While I was on the rooftop raising money for a community center, we heard that in the wake of the George Floyd protests, a white neighborhood in North Chicago had to hire security because the violence continued.

As we were getting ready to tape this story for Fox, several people came up to me and stressed that we should give white people a final taste of the violence that plagues our communities. I firmly resist. This is not a racial issue to me. This is about the downward spiral of values ​​in our city. I took race out of the equation and created what I thought was a better and more insightful story.

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Discipline is needed to resist the temptations of identity politics and to dig deeper into the character of people and even of society in a given moment. When one does this, one often achieves a deeper, deeper meaning that is closer to the truth. This is not surprising because, after all, character is the truth about humanity.

We live in the United States of America, this should make sense. If there’s anything I’ve learned from King and his long fight for civil rights, it’s the lesson of trying to be a man, an individual. His foot soldiers often carried signs that read “I am a man.” This is the essence of our struggle, and this is what we have been deprived of through centuries of brutal oppression.

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So why would I betray King for the low-grade instant gratification of playing identity politics? I disciplined myself to follow the path of character, and that choice has brought me many results.

Today, I am building a $45 million community center where our focus and the foundation of everything we do is character. My neighborhood may be primarily black, but we are raising men and women of character who, I hope, will become so successful that one day their names will mean something to you.

Click here to read more from Pastor Corey Brooks