At the end of the day, from the perspective of someone deeply committed to social change on issues of race, gender, sexuality, disability, etc., I have MAJOR bones to pick with both sides.
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The headline is 100% correct, but any argument that posits a binary between liberals who want democratic norms and leftists who want economic restructuring, without a thorough examination of social change & reaction, is missing at least half the story. http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/05/americas-brand-of-capitalism-is-incompatible-with-democracy.html …
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And I think there's a fair amount of evidence that without coming to a sustainable truce in the culture wars, America's democratic immune system will continue to be extremely vulnerable to a strong man who will protect conservatives' "way of life," not just their livelihoods.
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and honestly, I am genuinely concerned about a scenario where the truce is "you all shut up about your social issues, and if you stay quiet, we'll let you be equal partners in whatever redistribution of wealth we achieve."
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Do I think that's what the folks who wrote this good, hard-hitting economic justice piece want? No. Do I think their lack of interest in how policy change around social issues is to be achieved makes that scenario more likely? Yes.
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I just don't want a world where yeah, black folks make $15/hr at jobs that are slightly less shitty bc they have used collective bargaining to get more consistent hours and better childcare, BUT we're still mass incarcerated, cops still kill us, our schools are still underfunded
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and bc most of the white folks are pacified now, they do as white folks do and defend the status quo. "None of us are free until all of us are free" is true in many ways, but... not always.
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BUT also I have to recognize that bc I'm a middle class queer black person largely assimilated into this straight white world, I am most likely to benefit from social change, and frankly, most likely to suffer from economic redistribution (I should 100% pay more in taxes).
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so me constantly thinking "please keep my shit on the agenda too" may be self-serving, representative of a narrow slice of materially-comfortable interests rather than the broader swaths of people an economic justice agenda might benefit.
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OTOH, maybe I'm right and the straight white men who still control most political power will enact nominally "race-neutral," "gender-neutral," "accessible" "welcoming" pro-worker policies that just happen to further entrench power differentials along identity lines.
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oh nevermind I read another article by the same author; he ain't really worried about us, lol. "Make white people care more about their class than their race" is both less ethically sound and less electorally viable than a lot of (left-leaning) white folks think.
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End of conversation
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