I must chime in from "the Left." And I mean "the Left" as in "Left of you" since I don't subscribe to labels and I believe that "Left" and "Right" must be relative to something. So, since I'm "Left of you," I guess I'll tell you where "the Left" is.
I don't buy that "the Left" sees people as "victim groups." Nor do I believe that such a characterization applies only to "the Left." Most people I know, here, on "the Left," are more likely to see that different people from different backgrounds - race, gender, ethnicity, national origin, or sexual identity, for example - have specific life experiences that members in other groups may not have. The fact that people are different means that there may be something common to them as a group and that it's OK to identify it, respect it, or, at the very least, tolerate it.
To me, American people are like ice cream: you don't go into an ice cream store and ask "do you have ice cream"? You ask for your favorite flavor. Although all ice cream has things that make them similar, they also have things that make them different (in fact, some "ice cream" isn't even ice cream. It's yogurt!).
Acknowledging peoples' - or groups' - differences isn't racist. Unless when you do it you explicitly or implicitly suggest that one is better or superior than the other.
Differences are differences. And depending on who you are or what you believe, that's just the way things are, or that's a problem. I happen to think that noting and celebrating differences is not only good, but healthy. We may all be American, but we're not cut out of the same cloth.
Not to mention that you need to acknowledge the irony in this quote:
Leftism, which sees people as victim groups rather than individuals, which sets us one against another according to the color of our skins rather than distinguishing us by the contents of our characters
That, coming from a movement that made its political livelihood for decades by appealing to the fears of Southern Whites to maintain their political edge. Precious!
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