By overemphasizing identity identity politics ends up obscuring identity Gita 02.13

Identity politics both over emphasizes and obscures identity. The word identity politics can have two distinct meanings. One is that it is a politics based on assertion of identity as contrasted with class or interest groups.
The other is that identity is a mere afterthought to oppression. In the second formulation, identity is primarily in terms of who has victimized whom and whereas the first sense of identity politics is simply a tribal version of self-identification whereas the second is an endless guilt trip for the supposed victimizer who inherits the sins of their fathers with no hope of redemption. Thus for example racist identity politics reduces people to primarily their skin colors and as say the blacks are perpetually portrayed as the victims of systemic white oppression and the whites are portrayed as guilty of being born with white privilege and having no hope for redemption for generation upon generation of systemic abuse and exploitation of the blacks and often the mania with which people partake of identity politics is both disturbing and revealing.
It is disturbing because it reveals the desperate search for self-understanding that we all have and although identity politics over-emphasizes identity so much, actually it over-emphasizes only one aspect of our identity our skin color our identity is multi-layered and all other aspects of our identity are obscured by the politicalization of one aspect of identity be it race in the west or caste in India if we want to truly tap our potentials and do justice to our abilities and fulfill our destiny we need to mine deeper levels of identity beyond what are politically promoted and ultimately unearth our spiritual identity it is in understanding ourselves as spiritual beings transcendental to our various levels of material identity that we can truly become who we are meant to be. When we understand that we are souls who have been transmigrating through various bodies then we understand the temporality of the victim-victimizer narratives. A white slave owner in one life might be a black slave in another life and neither lifetime can one attain lasting fulfillment as long as one identifies with the identity that is politically made prominent.
Yes certain kinds of identity may give us some privileges or take away some privileges but the privilege of being human and being spiritual is what defines and unifies all of us and if we tap that potential and privilege we all can have a fulfilling life and make meaningful contributions to society for bringing about sustainable transformations that lead to greater egalitarianism and