There are all sorts of ways to be a "nobody" in America today.
Being poor makes you a "nobody" whatever your ethnicity. Being a person of color makes you a "nobody" whatever your socioeconomic status.
In some places, being gay or being non-Christian makes you a "nobody" whatever other privileges you might qualify for.
There are a lot of environments in which merely being a woman makes you a "nobody."
And to be a "nobody" is not just unfair but unsafe. If you're nobody, you have no recourse against abuse. You have no rights that anyone is bound to respect. You have no access to a justice system that will defend you. Your cries will not be listened to. You will be blamed for your own circumstances, if your circumstances are even acknowledged at all.
Here is what we all need to agree on: There are no nobodies. Every one of us is somebody.
Here is what I hear: Some defenders of the right of people of color to live in peace and safety accuse economic progressives of furthering the cause of white supremacy. Some economic progressives accuse those defenders of undermining the fight against plutocracy and oligarchy by directing their ire at their allies rather than their adversaries.
This is so misguided, so unnecessary, it pains me. Once again, the political left -- continuing a long, fine tradition that I've had the dubious privilege of witnessing more times than I can reckon -- makes the error of looking at all its struggles through the lens of issues, and of emphasizing the urgency of one's own issue above all others.
But there's only one struggle. It's the struggle for equality.
Because if you're not considered a full citizen and a full human being, you're a target for all sorts of abuse -- emotional, economic, political and physical.
All the political fights we're talking about are, at their heart, about equalizing people's status.
People of color must have the same status as people privileged to have been born "white."
People living in poverty and subsistence must have the same status as people living in comfort and luxury.
People who are gay must have the same status as people who are straight.
People who are Jewish, Muslim, atheist or humanist must have the same status as people who claim to be Christian.
People with disabilities must have the same status as people without any.
Girls and women must have the same status as boys and men.
Because we're all human. Because we all have the same needs and the same rights.
We all deserve safety, health and happiness, life and liberty, opportunity and dignity, no matter what we are or what decisions we've made.
There can be no "above" and "below," no "worthy" and "unworthy." There is only humanity. There are only our brothers and sisters.
Every issue we fixate on is about this, at its core. Police brutality is about equality before the law: it is cruel and wrong that some people must fear for their lives whenever they see a man or woman in a police uniform. Progressive economics are about equality in the workplace: it is cruel and wrong that workers are stripped of power and dignity, held to standards of "accountability" from which their bosses are exempt, and denied a decent standard of living for it. Whatever is cruel and wrong, we must oppose.
What's the big difference between us and Republicans? We believe in equality of all people, and they don't. They want us to remain unequal. They benefit from it, or they think they do, or they don't think about it at all but are pretty sure that certain others don't deserve any better. The "privilege" that they don't want to admit exists is the power and control that come from being able to designate others as nobodies. (Many of them don't realize that they're also nobodies in the eyes of more powerful somebodies.) Why do we get steamed when they say, "All lives matter"? Not because it's untrue, but because they don't honor the truth of it -- because to convince themselves that it's true, they have to redefine every word in that three-word phrase.
Why are some of us so suspicious of the patrician wing of the Democratic Party? Because we have good reason to believe that they tolerate some kinds of equality (social, sexual, religious) but are determined to keep us unequal in other respects (economic, political), and partial equality is not true equality.
#BlackLivesMatter wants racial equality. Economic progressives want economic equality. We all want equality. We all want all kinds of equality. What do we gain by accusing each other of wanting one kind of equality but not others? What on earth do we gain by that?
I expect that almost every one of us has felt "nobodied" in some way, by someone, at some time. If we haven't, we've known someone else who has been, or we have the capacity to imagine what it feels like. That's what makes us liberals and progressives: if we haven't experienced it, we at least understand the experience. That's why we care. That's why equality matters to us. We can put ourselves in another person's shoes.
It's time to put ourselves in one another's shoes, to see that what she cares about and what he cares about is essentially the same as what I care about, even if it's filed in a different drawer. To recognize that we're already unified in purpose, even if we aren't yet fully unified in deed. To say to one another, "Yes, and . . . " rather than "Yes, but . . . " or "No, because . . . ."
I want equality. I suspect you do too. I suspect we all do.