The stranglehold of consumer capitalism on American minds is no more apparent than the current move to buy blue bracelets as a sign of solidarity with Kamala Harris and her campaign. This performative activism reflects our inability to grapple with and reconcile profound complexities in our society — the (largely, white liberal) feeling of “how could people vote for that man again?”

The (white liberal) reaction has been to reductively blame certain identity groups rather than think more deeply about why people — honestly, all people who are not multimillionaires or billionaires — voted against their own interests, voted for increasing systemic harm against already marginalized and suffering communities.

Instead, I want to offer a quote from a mentor of mine, Barbara Johnson, as an impetus to think differently:

“If I perceive my ignorance as a gap in knowledge instead of an imperative that changes the very nature of what I think I know, then I do not truly experience my ignorance. The surprise of otherness is that moment when a new form of ignorance is suddenly activated as an imperative.”

We need to think beyond superficial identity politics — to understand what we DON’T know — to change this nation.