Identity politics is the civil religion

Responding to Multiculturalism, Universalism, and the 21st Century Academy by Nancy Cantor, H. E. Baber writes,

It's amazing that, resisting all empirical evidence, multiculturalists like the author of this article are still promoting the communitarian group identities line. Since the end of the Cold War every major armed conflict, from the Balkans to Sri Lanka to Darfur to the current war in the Middle East has been a tribal war between groups affirming their cultural/ethnic identities. Women and people of color with stature as public intellectuals, including Amartya Sen, Anthony Appiah, Salman Rushdie and Ayaan Hirsi Ali, have spoken out against this communitarian, multicultural ideology and in favor of cosmopolitanism.

But on the ground, identity politics is still the civil religion. Most people don't take it seriously but still affirm a nominal affiliation—making noises about this, that and the other "community" and participating in "diversity" activities in the spirit of Eisenhower era suburbanites going to church for the sake of the children and in the interests of making connections for business purposes. You can make a decent living in Academia doing the diversity thing—get little grants, facilitate "diversity" workshops and make merit for promotion and tenure.