From my new column in Taki’s Magazine:

With identity politics and their accompanying political correctness in the news (as usual), it’s worth considering how similar human urges play out in the world of sports.

If Congressional politics is notoriously show biz for the ugly, then identity politics is athletics for the clumsy.

Identity politics exist because demographic identity is important. It’s impossible to eliminate identity politics, but it is feasible to level the playing field by denying any sacralized group the rhetorical privilege of engaging in the arena of public debate without anybody else being allowed to criticize them.

The goal of exercises in identity politics is the same one that’s featured in the classic intro to ABC’s Wide World of Sports a half-century ago: “the thrill of victory.”

Read the whole thing there.