I disagree that "identity" is distancing from essentialism because we use descriptors all the time without implying that those characteristics are essential. People don't need to say "Bob identifies as a teacher" in order to clarify that they belive that teacher isn't an essential quality of Bob. I thought the opposite, that identity is sanitizing hierarchies like race and gender by implying that an individual is not coerced into comforming to a certain social category. Other replies in this thread prove the point perfectly. This is because "identity" here is often associated with "identify", and with "identify" it suggests that the subject is choosing the social category they belong in and accepts all the connotations that come with it. Its emblemic of the kind of amoral "postmodernism" where the status quo is simply deconstructed neutrally with the intention to describe, lacking a strong critique or even a recognition of the grave injustice of the situation. Honestly, I get the impression that the kind of academics who donate to Kamala's campaign simply don't care and are very comfortable with the status quo.