Identity and Emptiness; Emptiness and Nonduality

Knowing my identity as a Jew, American, white, male, liberal, etc. is simply a social construct with no metaphysical grounding, why schlep around these identity markers at all? Knowing that “self” is a fiction, and “me, myself, and I” are variations of this fiction, why bother to dress up the “self” with a specific identity at all? I think the answer is this: I can’t help it. Just as there is no such thing as “ice cream” separate from specific flavors of ice cream, there is no me, no self, with identity markers. The key isn’t to free yourself from everything that is yourself, it is to know that everything that is yourself is a fiction. This way you can play as and with your “self” rather than be played by it.