Marc Blecher, an Oberlin professor of politics, had problems with the program at the time, in part, he said, because thinking in terms of cultural identities often leaves out a critical factor: class. He believes the problem goes back to the early days of boomer politics, which he experienced as an activist at Cornell, in the sixties. “When we opposed the Vietnam War, we didn’t take seriously that all the draft dodging we were doing was screwing black people and poor people and forcing them to go fight,” Blecher said one afternoon, in his office.

And that's the whipsaw right there: for everything you protest for, you're protesting against.

Speaking as a privileged white male, who pretends and aspires to some enlightenment, pretty much every adversarial position of every diversity protest ever staged has been against me. And that's appropriate. I be the privileged white male. But every time a minority group wishes to increase their inclusiveness, they need a villain. And that villain is me. And that's also appropriate.

But there is no. FUCKING. WAY. I have ever dwelled in a universe where a $64k a year liberal arts education was any more likely than me winning Miss Black Universe. By arguing that I need to "check my privilege" the implied statement is that the accuser has none.

And that is why these discussions go so south so quick: The accuser is arguing that they can speak for the oppressed while the accused can't and both of them are a fair sight better off than the object of discussion. It's a debate where both parties swarm to wrap themselves in oppression street cred when the fact of the matter is, divisions have to be played up and buttressed out in order to increase the power of rhetoric.

Seattle went all-gender restrooms like a year ago. I went to a club like two months ago. Walked into a bathroom. Took a leak. Walked out. Two girls were giving me the stinkeye. Why?

Because I'd walked into the restroom that used to be the women's room.

See, for most people, all-gender restrooms means everyone but cisgender males gets their choice. Why? Because cisgender males are wrong by default. And here I am, using the phrase "cisgender male" unironically, because apparently that's what I need to do these days to speak to people but lemme tell ya:

If I weren't reaching very deep into my well of understanding I'd have a hard time finding any sympathy with a cultural movement that feels A-OK beating the shit out of me for every transgression real or imagined that they or their eight generations of ancestors have ever experienced due to people they may or may not imagine I'm related to.

And if I were an unemployed coal miner in West Virginia I'd have a great deal of difficulty finding the empathetic position with someone who identifies as "LatinX."