First off I agree with many points you make. However I would say that while you have the fact they seem out of order. Racism isn't the effect of Americans anti-social justice stance its arguably the cause or at the barebones least part part of the catalyst. Let me take you back to the 1960s. This is when American leftism was arguably at the peak. Welfare was at the levels of around Europe, government programs were widely available, and where wages for jobs like fast food workers would have been all that far off from $15 an hour. By the time the 1960s where over it wasn't all that long until America started slipping into conservationism with Nixon and then it went full force with Reagan. Now this happened pretty much throughout all the West (save for France who arrived to the party a bit late), but nothing that came as radical of a departure as America. Not even Maggie's United Kingdom.
The answer lies in the
Southern Strategy headed by Richart Nixon. How do you get the poorest area of America to be the most corporate ballwashing anti-poverty anti-poor area of the country? Say that the
niggers African-Americans are taking all of the welfare. They are taking YOUR money!
This is what gave birth to the conservative revolution. And to this day it still pioneers it.
Just go to any American Politics thread and you constantly see news bits (and posts) from the right-no the mainstream American voice constantly saying "we need to give money to those who need it because
some people (wink-wink) abuse it." Or "the problem isn't the lack of money but that
some Americans (wink-wink) need to back to our traditional culture of the 1950s". You want to know the REAL reason why so many Americans are against free healthcare? I was driving home from work with my brother one day. I brought up the topic of how stupid our healthcare system is. Now at the time my brother was on food stamps, lacked a stable job, was uninsured, and paid $100 a month for pills for his condition. I told him that free health care would work because its practiced everywhere else in the Western world. His response "It couldn't work here because America is different, other countries don't have blacks and Latinos who would take advantage of the system. That's the way it is." Other than his lack of education in civics (I'll brush upon this later), this is how Americans think. Extend welfare? The blacks and Latinos will just abuse it and won't work. Get better wages? Blacks and Latinos will just stay in minimum wage jobs. This is the entire thought process of many Americans. They will deny it,
but push them enough and they'll say it. Americans really believe that America is "different" than Europe. While this may be true to an extent it is nowhere near to the point that they believe and every bit as exaggerated as they exaggerate crime in the streets (I.E. South Side of Chicago = San Salvador).
Yes the anti-communist rhetoric had something to do with America's rightward shit. Nobody is deny that. But when it was at its peak so was American leftism. It wasn't the sole contributor. I personally agree with everything you said about class being the real problem. The problem with that is when many Americans hear things like "reduce income inequality" = "blacks and Latinos want more money for themselves to take from white people". Or "we need to invest in education" = "waste more money on brown and black kids who won't learn." Again they will deny it but get them alone and talk to them they'll admit it. Of course there are plenty of Americans who are conservative not because they dislike minorities but poor people, but many overlap and when you combine those that hate poor to the ones that hate minority they are a force to be reckon with.
Your theory on why the left weak is close, but has a flaw. Talking about racism when running for office? Yeah you lose. Done. Finished. You can hint toward racism when you on one side of the aisle, but once you even give a slight nudge that you are for helping brown people gain an edge over whites, done. You will not be elected. President Obama is the first non-fully white president we have ever had and I don't believe he has ever commented on racism in the manner you speak of. The only time I can recall was the Trayvon Martin incident when what he said boiled down to "Look white people, give us blacks a break. I was followed around stores before. Just don't assume that we are all killers." The sad part is that sentence isn't that much of a hyperbole. The Democrats literally have NOTHING to stand on other than saying "We aren't as far right as the Republicans." They are possibly the most take no action party ever. This is because the right wing's way of thinking is so dominate in the country. The best nation I can compare the situation to is Venezuela, in which one party has gone so far on one side of the political spectrum that the other party is pretty much just a catch all party. Its not quite that serious yet but with the way things are going they are getting there. When the Democrats held a super majority they couldn't even pass a public option for healthcare. What passed was the Romney plan! I repeat the only plan that the Democrats agreed to pass was the plan laid out by the Democratic Presidential candidate's
rival! That says EVERYTHING about the Democrats really.
In terms of affirmative action, that Atlantic article is bullshit. Its been widely acknowledged that affirmative action in school has been very beneficial to blacks and Latinos. Plenty of studies have shown that the best way for people to improve their school performance is to lump the underperforming students with the overperforming ones as Finland has shown in its education model. The Atlantic really has been
on a roll lately with its articles. Affirmative action has to be strengthened as a whole if anything. As its been shown
study by
study that blacks with an average record are a bit less likely to receive job offers than white
felons.
America's problem is the lack of understanding how society works. The concept of structural functionalism is so absent in this country its ridiculous. People don't see our incarceration rate as problem because "they're black and probably deserve it" (
soon 1/3 black males and 1/6 Latino males will have been incarcerated in their lifetimes), they don't want to invest in schools because "its a waste of money. The problem with this is not only are these people are significant part of the country, but these policies effect everybody. Americans are very absent minded in terms of why a collectivist culture is better than an individualistic one (something that wasn't a problem forty years ago). Americans don't understand why poorer people having money would be good for their society. "Invest it to become middle class and have a more competitive society you say? Pipe dream most will just by rims and lowrider gear. What it will a generation or to and it has to be done because in the long run it will be better for the country? Well why do I have to give MY money then!?" Civics and the concept of "take care of your society and society will take care of you" is very absent minded in this country. And its rooted from the Southern Strategy. You can't separate America's class problems from its race problems.
There does seem to be light at the end of the tunnel though. Millennials are the most Democratic voting generation since the Great Depression Era. A lot of this is due to minorities becoming more of a majority as well as the young whites moving more leftward. Things will change. Comparing America and Europe in regards to race to me is a bit difficult because both places have had a very different history and fallout when it comes to race. And really being honest I don't see race as that in your face here. The only time I get offended by people is when foreigners say something along the lines of "Well you aren't a real American because you aren't white" or when rednecks (who I hardly know) call me "Muhammad" and think its a joke. If you want to talk openness, well fine I'll be open. If II don't like something you said to me I'm going to say it. If you stereotype me or say something about my race I don't like then I'm going to tell you. And again, I rarely see the brouhaha of being "oversensitive". Unless you joke around by saying "Oh did you receive your welfare check today" to a black friend or call a Latino a "spic". To me it seems that people come here to a place with boundaries that don't exist in their own countries and feel uncomfortable.
