14 Comments

The massive blind spot that many centrists and moderates have to how race motivates people living in a class structure determined by skin color can come off as disingenuous and insensitive as someone who is constantly reminded of that class system. Great piece and thank you for the empathy.

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Yep, the “distraction” arguments often irk me for this reason.

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Racism is the goal of the GOP.

People vote over and over against their best interests because white supremacy is THE most important thing in their lives. People living off of the government, vote for people who want to take their income away. People whose children died from leukemia, cause they live next to a plant that spews poison in the air, vote for people who don’t want any environmental regulations. People who became disabled from covid, and can’t work, vote for people who want to get rid of social security disability.

It’s always been about racism.

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Since the Jamestown colony, perhaps even earlier. In Virginia it was about dividing enslaved people from mostly white indentured servants. The white patriarchy was afraid that they would lose their hegemony should their enslaved and indentured "underlings" united to throw off the yoke of oppression together.

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Yeah that Buttigieg tweet caught my eye too and annoyed me. To be fair, everything he does annoys me (I will just never get over the fact that he ran for president after only being the mayor of the 4th largest city in a relatively small state and most people didn't have a problem with it because reasons (probably cause he's a white man)*. All politicians have big egos but his must be gargantuan to think he could/should do that).

But I say all of that because I think he intentionally wants to not wade into the racism discussion. He's trying to walk the fine line between not pissing off centrists and not pissing off liberals/leftists. And as decades upon decades of history has shown, we can't hand wave away racism as a "distraction" and hope it just resolves itself. We have to hit it head on. And we need to hold powerful Democrats accountable for being the ones to take the lead on it too. It can't just be activists. The Buttigiegs of the party have to fight it too.

*That's not to say all elected offices need someone with a long resume. I'd love to see more state reps/senators and Congressional reps/senators take the AOC route. But president is just different and I while I don't think its completely necessary to have specific experience I think helps a lot (I don't think Biden is as successful without all of his experience. And perhaps Obama would've been more successful with more experience.)

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I have mixed feelings about Buttigieg. He's usually a good communicator, and I don't think he's been a bad secretary of transportation. He's more centristy than I'd like...though, tbf, the left isn't always great in discussing these issues either.

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In a vacuum I can probably be ok with Buttigieg. And yeah that is fair. Someone like Elizabeth Warren is usually great but I'm not going to pretend her and a lot of the left are much better than the centrists on racism.

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This is a point that can't be made enough. I wrote about it a while back. https://jimryan.substack.com/p/the-long-con-of-american-racism

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Your directness and clear thinking is so damn refreshing. Maybe racism feels like not-the-real-issue to some political observers because it's assumed to be a compensation for some other, underlying psychological and social problems, and if we could just get at those, racism would dry up and blow away (which is a nice though unproven idea). In any case, there's certainly no reason to treat racism as a mere diversion.

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The main problem I have with this kind of analysis is that I'm not convinced of it's practical value. If racism really is the point for say the 44% of US voters who are solidly and unalterably voting Trump in the coming election, what then? It's not like calling them racist is likely to make them less racist, in fact I'm pretty sure even mildly suggesting it alienates them further. Are we only left to hope the fraction of the population they represent shrinks over time?

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well, I mean, the immediate hope here is that Democratic politicians, who represent large number of Black people, can stop insulting their constituents while attempting to show solidarity with them. Insulting your constituents tends to alienate them and weaken your coalition, so avoiding that can improve your electoral fortunes at the margin.

I think it's also helpful tactically. Ds (and I think sometimes portions of the left) for a long time talked or acted like removing abortion rights was a distraction rather than an actual goal of the GOP. Obviously that turned out poorly.

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Nobody says it has to be an encouraging conclusion, or come with a ready solution. This is a statement of harsh truth like, "I'm leaving you," or "I'm afraid it's cancer."

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While I like what Noah's saying? I have to say I think David Fisher's right—they're bigots, therefore they're beyond redemption.

All we can do is try to DESTROY them as a political force so those few we let survive slither back under their rocks, never to see the light of day again.

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I suppose at least the bright side is that the whole question of whether racism in America by now mainly "systemic" is now mooted. It is back in the open, full bore.

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