[Marxism] against diversity

[Magdi Elgizouli]

  Walter Benn Michaels
Against Diversity

The importance of race and gender in the current us presidential campaign
has, of course, been a function of the salience of racism and sexism—which
is to say, discrimination—in American society; a fact that was emphasized by
post-primary stories like the New York Times's 'Age Becomes the New Race and
Gender'.1 It is no doubt difficult to see ageism as a precise
equivalent—after all, part of what is wrong with racism and sexism is that
they supposedly perpetuate false stereotypes whereas, as someone who has
just turned 60, I can attest that a certain number of the stereotypes that
constitute ageism are true. But the very implausibility of the idea that the
main problem with being old is the prejudice against your infirmities,
rather than the infirmities themselves, suggests just how powerful
discrimination has become as the model of injustice in America; and so how
central overcoming it is to our model of justice.