War Peaceman
You're a big guy.
Also, what is the point of setting your stall out for the compromise. Go for the thing you really want.
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"The First White President": Ta-Nehisi Coates on Trump
- Thread starter entremet
- Start date
Also, what is the point of setting your stall out for the compromise. Go for the thing you really want.
CopperPuppy
Member
This whole thing is so fucking good and so brutally true. I started grabbing excerpts to post like others have in this thread but wound up with a wall of text so I'll just say this:
READ THIS - to anyone lurking ITT who hasn't. READ THIS SHIT.
READ THIS - to anyone lurking ITT who hasn't. READ THIS SHIT.
RoyaleDuke
Banned
Man, I love this mans vocabulary.
I also love his hot fire.
I also love his hot fire.
Muppet of a Man
Member
Also, what is the point of setting your stall out for the compromise. Go for the thing you really want.
Exactly. We need to take it even further. We need to list out, to enumerate, the actual proposed policy to get it done. If anything, everyone has an aversion to doing this for some reason, likely because it is difficult, takes time and effort, and can be a grind. But until we articulate exactly what we want and how it gets done, it is much easier to deflect via talking points, propaganda, and par-for-course politicking.
Vermillion
Banned
At least give his Black Panther comic book a read.
I actually hate his BP.
But articles like this? The man is incredible.
Angelus Errare
Banned
Your right. Those in power on the liberal side are centrists who are "the rich liberal elite". They are primary benefactors of the historical divide and conquer tactics of the white American rich. But there are huge swaths of progressive white young people who don't have much power, relatively little wealth, and much debt. They would truly like to see material change in terms of systemic racism, but they don't have the levers of power to do it.
A white person having little wealth, and much debt has no correlation to them wanting to see change in systematic racism in any capacity man.
If that were even remotely true we wouldn't be reading this article, all throughout US history we've had "progressive" white folks who had little power, little wealth, and much debt.
pretty wack, honestly.
Well this insightful and illuminating point totally trounced anything Coates said. Gripping stuff!
Bobby Roberts
Banned
The truth, sad as it is, is apparent. In order to rout out systemic racism via policy changes in a place like America, you need the votes of those who are apathetic at best, racist at worst, in addition to those with good intentions, as we operate with big tent politics and require the support of moderates/independents to be really politically successful with a leftist agenda.
I think the answer comes primarily with the large group of young white progressives you've been championing in the thread finally being made to realize: their personal feelings as to whether they're "Good allies" are nowhere near as important as they consistently place them. Which is to say, they have to let go of their raw need to be reassured that their systemic privilege isn't really as pronounced and responsible for the station they occupy (whatever it might be) before they can effectively act in the best interests of those who do not look like them.
That reckoning doesn't come easy, and demands a level of selflessness and acceptance that many young white progressives simply refuse to acknowledge, or if they do acknowledge, are uncomfortable with actually applying to their own lives.
The inequality here is a racial one, at its core, and always has been. Financial structures and entire means of living have been built upon that, and whenever an opportunity to rectify that inequality comes up (typically in response to outright racists flexing their muscles to maintain their white power) the response by white progressives is often very mediocre, full of excuses for inaction and lack of results, and hinges on making sure nobody notices or applies heat & pressure to just how complicit they are in the system proceeding to this point.
White people wanna help but don't want to eat any of the shit we've been serving up for 200 years.
I'm just as guilty of this bullshit. I'm almost 40 years old and there are loads of examples of my knowingly benefitting from this set-up and letting it ride. There are tons of examples of me, over the course of my life, indulging in/allowing for hurtful stereotypes as scapegoats to justify to myself the easy road I get to take as a white guy. I've othered large percentages of my country's population as a means to feel better about taking advantage of a crooked system in a way available only to me as a white guy.
Trump's presidency is proof that a lot of people like me, if given the opportunity and enough time to convince themselves its best for them and their families, will let racists get their Ws because they're still stuck in a place where what's really important to them is their own illegitimate sense of comfort and their denial of complicity, and their unwillingness to assume responsibility (even if it's not theirs—ESPECIALLY if it's not theirs) for the inherent unfairness of that system before halfassedly attempting to fix it.
The sense of entitlement we possess, unfairly gained and almost never willingly released, is the biggest obstacle, because our fragility—carefully cultivated over centuries of coddling—mandates that before we tend to the long-overdue work of legitimizing people who should have never been seen as illegitimate in the first place (and especially not for the reasons we deemed them as such) we first must re-establish just how bonafide and good we are, and often our progress (whatever it may be worth) stalls out there.
White people have assumed possession of the tools to basically do whatever we want, whenever we want, without much of a struggle on the way to realizing it, and not enough of us want to set all that crybaby bullshit aside and get to fucking work. Not without assurances beforehand that we're going to have it just as good as we've always had it first.
If enough of us were willing to put that work in, not only does reaching across racial and economic divides become a little bit easier, but the raw numbers of people on the other side of those divides needed to remove roadblocks on the path to progress become less important, as well.
Trump's presidency tells us we're not there yet. And we're probably not going to get there for awhile yet, either.
If this country moves forward, it's going to be despite us and our cheap-but-good intentions, not because of us. Hopefully we'll catch up once the work is done. And when we arrive late to that party maybe we'll have the good sense not to overreact when people already there flick us shit for not helping as much as we could have. I doubt it, but I'm still a naive, hopeful romantic at the end of the day.
You're pulling a bait-and-switch here, I think unintentionally. Coates makes no pretense of having politically acceptable solutions. Merely morally necessary ones.
That's a fair point. I'm agreeing with the author, and I think he does a great job of outlining the problem. What I'd like to see are practical solutions to it. Moral necessity isn't going to convince white America. They have been fine with the boot on black America's neck from hundreds of years ago to the present day.
In what ways? You don't think white progressives would support a policy platform which reforms systemic racism in governmental and other institutions? Affirmative action is one such policy that progressives have been trying to protect. There is much more to do on the policy front, but hardly anyone ever proposes policy to address it. Most just symbolically address it. But it needs to go further.
White progressives have a racial blind spot. They believe, generally, in color-blind economic justice. Coates himself accurately points this out. No, I don't think that white progressives will make additional policies targeted at bridging the gap between POC and whites. Affirmative action as is in-place today doesn't go nearly far enough and supporting it is more lip service than actually accepting and dealing with the root issues.
I think reparations actually could be pretty easy to implement in terms of how they could be funded. This would include a combination of targeted tax increases on wealthy individuals and other wealth centers (corporations), in addition to inflationary spending (i.e., printing money and awarding it where necessary). The taxes would help temper any sort of run away inflation and take money from the greatest beneficiaries of white supremacy, rich white Americans. Inflationary spending prevents people looking for loopholes to protect their assets from being impacted, as the value of their assets would be diluted and spread to others regardless and their assets wouldn't even have to be seized for that to happen.
Add the social democratic agenda of universal healthcare and free or highly subsidized higher education, and you go even further in truly leveling the playing field in large part since minorities are disproportionately impacted by expenses related to those things.
The white elite would see civil war before they'd allow the government to tax them to pay for reparations. They put the very planet at risk during the Cold War/Korea/Vietnam to protest their assets from communism.
Your right. Those in power on the liberal side are centrists who are "the rich liberal elite". They are primary benefactors of the historical divide and conquer tactics of the white American rich. But there are huge swaths of progressive white young people who don't have much power, relatively little wealth, and much debt. They would truly like to see material change in terms of systemic racism, but they don't have the levers of power to do it.
Those progressive white people actually have a lot of privilege and advantage, in that their lack of wealth, power and debt does not put them in immediate danger of murder by law enforcement. This gives them the luxury of pretending they are helpless to act because they don't control the levers of power.
Black people have never controlled the levers of power and yet somehow found ways to fight unceasingly for civil rights.
Muppet of a Man
Member
A white person having little wealth, and much debt has no correlation to them wanting to see change in systematic racism in any capacity man.
If that were even remotely true we wouldn't be reading this article, all throughout US history we've had "progressive" white folks who had little power, little wealth, and much debt.
Those who are likely to be progressive, which highly correlates with the cultural exposure that comes with higher education and living in more diverse, densely populated areas, are inherently a subpopulation which itself is a minority. Their numbers and wealth are too small inside of the big tent of liberal politics to command control of it. Those centrists/moderates who conform to the risk-averse, non-confrontational apathy of capitalism are fated to steer the ship in such a situation. This leaves progressives in the conundrum of policy being dictated by right-wing economics and deemphasizing social policy that could be enabled by left-wing economics.
Those who are likely to be progressive, which highly correlates with the cultural exposure that comes with higher education and living in more diverse, densely populated areas, are inherently a subpopulation which itself is a minority. Their numbers and wealth are too small inside of the big tent of liberal politics to command control of it. Those centrists/moderates who conform to the risk-averse, non-confrontational apathy of capitalism are fated to steer the ship in such a situation. This leaves progressives in the conundrum of policy being dictated by right-wing economics and deemphasizing social policy that could be enabled by left-wing economics.
In other words, white progressive are helpless bystanders who would really love to help but, shucks, it's just too difficult, and really those other white people are to blame.
No brownie points for just wishing there was something you could do when other people are out there doing stuff.
Muppet of a Man
Member
In other words, white progressive are helpless bystanders who would really love to help but, shucks, it's just too difficult, and really those other white people are to blame.
No brownie points for just wishing there was something you could do when other people are out there doing stuff.
What are you talking about? Progressives are the ones doing things. Progressives are not just white people. I'm not sure what distinction you are drawing between those who are doing things and those who are not. What I'm saying is that the progressive element of the democratic party is the minority subpopulation of that party. They have less power in ultimately devising the party's platform than the neoliberal centrist majority does.
The democrats concession with right wing economics under Bill Clinton is a large part of why American politics in general have drifted so far right.
Social policy without economic policy backing it is in large part ineffectual. You can change policy to help minorities but it was always going to be a much longer trek to change hearts and minds of those who are racist, xenophobic, or apathetic.
WiiredShawn
Member
Great, great article. Racism is so entangled with America's history that to simply brush your finger along the root sends a shiver up the whole trunk. It's going to be a long time before America succeeds in getting past this - and it's going to require some delicate rhetorical maneuvering among liberals, even if we really just want to say "stop being so racist, you fucks."
That is likely because any empirical evaluation of the relationship between Trump and the white working class would reveal that one adjective in that phrase is doing more work than the other. In 2016, Trump enjoyed majority or plurality support among every economic branch of whites.
The whole article is extremely well written, but this really stood out to me. It makes me sad to think that it is so much easier to win an election if you appeal to working class voters than if you appeal to people that want equality for everyone.
Muppet of a Man
Member
I'll give you another example of a policy which requires economic allocation in order to work that would vastly improve how law enforcement is levied against minorities: decentralize law enforcement's power by adding checks and balances by creating an agency/institution with the power to fire (but not hire) police officers when they do racial profiling, don't follow the spirit of the law, subvert the law, abuse their power, etc.
This agency, by its nature, would be at odds with the police and act as a watch dog over them.
This agency, by its nature, would be at odds with the police and act as a watch dog over them.
shadowsdarknes
Member
Heard him on NPR this morning talking about it. I love his writing.
LegendofLex
Member
The whole article is extremely well written, but this really stood out to me. It makes me sad to think that it is so much easier to win an election if you appeal to working class voters than if you appeal to people that want equality for everyone.
The sort of weird and sinister thing about the strategy is (and I'm not blaming you for this) that you somehow ended up coming away from that sentence with the reading that the success came from appealing to "working class voters" and not "white voters."
And that's despite quoting the following sentence, which explains this.
WiiredShawn
Member
I'll give you another example of a policy which requires economic allocation in order to work that would vastly improve how law enforcement is levied against minorities: decentralize law enforcement's power by adding checks and balances by creating an agency/institution with the power to fire (but not hire) police officers when they do racial profiling, don't follow the spirit of the law, subvert the law, abuse their power, etc.
This agency, by its nature, would be at odds with the police and act as a watch dog over them.
It'd also be good if that same agency prevented police offers with bad records from simply waltzing over to another department and landing a job. And if the agency took the task of investigating police crimes away from officers and had it done independently. And if the law required police offers to pay for lawsuits against officers from their own budget, rather than from taxpayer coffers.
I feel like changes like these would radically alter policing in America.
Muppet of a Man
Member
The whole article is extremely well written, but this really stood out to me. It makes me sad to think that it is so much easier to win an election if you appeal to working class voters than if you appeal to people that want equality for everyone.
The reason so much focus is on white working class is because many historically have been part of unions and would vote democratic because of that. They are the swing voters of today who swung republican because many are entrenched in insular, tribalistic white communities that are dying and are no longer part of unions, as unions are dying with manufacturing jobs that once were the backbone of those communities.
It sucks that we need the votes of these people, but with the big tent politics of today, we will likely need them for the foreseeable future in order to get democrats in office who can affect change.
In what ways? You don't think white progressives would support a policy platform which reforms systemic racism in governmental and other institutions? Affirmative action is one such policy that progressives have been trying to protect. There is much more to do on the policy front, but hardly anyone ever proposes policy to address it. Most just symbolically address it. But it needs to go further.
I'm not going to speak for or of people who describe themselves as progressive, but a whole lot of broadly liberal, socially progressive white people will never, ever admit that their whiteness grants them privileges, and will quickly turn against any proposal that appears to remove those privileges.
Just look at how so many commentators claim that Hillary ignored the "working class" -- i.e. non-wealthy white people -- because she dared to ever talk about minority specific issues. If an issue does not directly and visibly harm white people then it cannot be a real issue.
FinaruDensetsu
Member
What I said was that being white or male doesn't really help you become a president that much.
Doesn't help you that much but just 44 out of 45 presidents have both of those qualities.
The whole article is extremely well written, but this really stood out to me. It makes me sad to think that it is so much easier to win an election if you appeal to working class voters than if you appeal to people that want equality for everyone.
Trump didn't appeal to working class voters. The sentence you just quoted shows that he won white voters, just like prior Republican candidates. He simply used racialized economic rhetoric to win over some poorer white voters who didn't normally vote GOP.
Trump's class politics are bogus and his solutions are insolvent. Moreover, he completely failed to sway any significant number of working-class people who aren't white, a huge segment (40-50%) of American workers.
By insinuating that the working class only includes blue-collar white people, you're unknowingly perpetuating the racist, destructive myths that only white people work and that class politics must be racialized.
Muppet of a Man
Member
It'd also be good if that same agency prevented police offers with bad records from simply waltzing over to another department and landing a job. And if the agency took the task of investigating police crimes away from officers and had it done independently. And if the law required police offers to pay for lawsuits against officers from their own budget, rather than from taxpayer coffers.
I feel like changes like these would radically alter policing in America.
Exactly. What you've said is exactly what I had in mind. It is concrete policy proposals like these that will actually affect change within the purview of what government can actually enact.
Muppet of a Man
Member
I'm not going to speak for or of people who describe themselves as progressive, but a whole lot of broadly liberal, socially progressive white people will never, ever admit that their whiteness grants them privileges, and will quickly turn against any proposal that appears to remove those privileges.
Just look at how so many commentators claim that Hillary ignored the "working class" -- i.e. non-wealthy white people -- because she dared to ever talk about minority specific issues. If an issue does not directly and visibly harm white people then it cannot be a real issue.
That may be so, but they, more than any other sub population of white people, will admit they have privilege.
We can do both things. We can talk about minority specific issues but we can also address the polarizing of wealth and power in society that is effecting the majority of people. The 2 are not mutually exclusive by any means, as that polarization affects minorities moreso than any other group and is in large part why they are so disenfranchised, as money and assets are power.
SoundofSilence
Member
Hang on a minute I'm not American, Obama actually presented his birth cert to placate those fuckin tools?! Fuckin hell.
Sadly, yes but it's worse than that. Trump offered $5M for Obama's college transcripts to prove that he really went to Harvard. In Trump's mind, a black man being admitted to Harvard was impossible.
That may be so, but they, more than any other sub population of white people will admit they have privilege.
We can do both things. We can talk about minority specific issues but we can also address the polarizing of wealth and power in society that is effecting the majority of people. The 2 are not mutually exclusive by any means, as that polarization affects minorities moreso than any other group and is in large part why they are so disenfranchised, as money and assets are power.
Literally the only person arguing that we need to separate economic and social justice in this thread is you.
You are doing a great job of exemplifying a bunch of the points about white progressives made in this article.
Hashmal_Bringer_of_Order
Member
I mean, this is obviously masterfully written, but it is so incredibly easy to read this and say "It's those nazi-rednecks fucking things up, that ain't me, i voted for Hillary!".
There's probably more white people like that than there are black people in america. How do you even begin to change that?
There's probably more white people like that than there are black people in america. How do you even begin to change that?
I mean, this is obviously masterfully written, but it is so incredibly easy to read this and say "It's those nazi-rednecks fucking things up, that ain't me, i voted for Hillary!".
There's probably more white people like that than there are black people in america. How do you even begin to change that?
No government since Johnson has actually made a proactive effort to fight white supremacy.
Muppet of a Man
Member
Literally the only person arguing that we need to separate economic and social justice in this thread is you.
You are doing a great job of exemplifying a bunch of the points about white progressives made in this article.
I am critizing those points, as trying to separate the 2 things (social issues and economics) doesn't work in reality.
I actually think that paying lip service to social issues and propping up the current brand of capitalism exacerbates the problem of racism, as it props up / enables one of its main avenues of oppression.
I actually think you are doing a good job of being a contrarian. What do you propose in terms of policy to help minorities? I already said the combination of social democratic and minority specific policies holds the keys to real systemic reform. At this point its like you are arguing semantics just to win an argument and point fingers.
I am also saying that I think Coates sells white progressives short, as I think most would agree with the policies I've outlined.
The argument over marketing politics is another one completely than to enacting meaningful change.
ChuckHoneywood
Banned
Love Coates and he's right. Trump wouldn't be president right now if not for Obama.
8 successful years in the highest office really hurt racists' feelings.
8 successful years in the highest office really hurt racists' feelings.
LegendofLex
Member
I mean, this is obviously masterfully written, but it is so incredibly easy to read this and say "It's those nazi-rednecks fucking things up, that ain't me, i voted for Hillary!".
There's probably more white people like that than there are black people in america. How do you even begin to change that?
The first step is probably for those whites who are aware of this issue to take the lead as far as visibly accepting responsibility for white privilege and white supremacy. And not just "my small share of responsibility," but responsibility for the whole damn thing - responsibility for what's happened past, present, and future, and responsibility to fix it.
This will not by itself achieve anything, but it seems like it's a necessary prerequisite in order to arrive at a situation where whites en masse actually act on that responsibility.
For lack of a better phrase, whites as a cultural group need a "come to Jesus" moment that flips their mindset from "I'm not a racist, so don't bug me just because I got mine" to "I need to give all I have to confront this injustice or else I perpetuate it." And that has to start somewhere.
Bobby Roberts
Banned
For lack of a better phrase, whites as a cultural group need a "come to Jesus" moment that flips their mindset from "I'm not a racist, so don't bug me just because I got mine" to "I need to give all I have to confront this injustice or else I perpetuate it." And that has to start somewhere.
This is a very succinct sum up, yeah.
VeryGooster
Banned
Good on this essay for also calling out other essayists/columnists on the incessant "WHITE WORKING CLASS ≠ IDENTITY POLITICS" bull shit.
StrategyFan
Member
Not every Trump voter is a white supremacist. But every Trump voter felt it acceptable to hand the fate of the country over to one.
but her emails?
OrangeGrayBlue
Member
Erm, I know a number of white man living in USA, who, for some reason, are yet to become presidents of USA.
I don't mean to call you out specifically, but takeaways like this hurt the cause and I'm only pointing this out because I see these kinds of rebuttals (in good faith and otherwise) all the time.
If you can read that sentence you quoted and interpret it as "Donald Trump is the President only because he's a white man, and his history with birtherism, his celebrity, and his clout among the alt-right are not contributing factors" then your rebuttal has fallen apart at the very first step of comprehending what you've read. You're responding to a point that was not even being made.
Again, I think you sincerely overlooked the context so I'm not upset about that, but I see people make similar statements to yours all the time who seem to be intentionally misconstruing points and conflating ideas for their own gain.
The sort of weird and sinister thing about the strategy is (and I'm not blaming you for this) that you somehow ended up coming away from that sentence with the reading that the success came from appealing to "working class voters" and not "white voters."
And that's despite quoting the following sentence, which explains this.
Sorry I don't think I got my point across. I wasn't talking about Trump winning, I am talking about Democrats trying to win in the future.
I think this article shines a light on the fact that if there is a large portion of the country that does not want equality. So a Democrat that preaches for equality, that blacks should have the same opportunities as whites, and that a white man is no better than a black man is going to find it hard to win over these people.
If that same democrat instead focuses on working class issues, things that on a surface level don't necessarily work to destroy their perception of being better than other races, they have better chance of securing those voters.
Muppet of a Man
Member
I think the answer comes primarily with the large group of young white progressives you've been championing in the thread finally being made to realize: their personal feelings as to whether they're "Good allies" are nowhere near as important as they consistently place them. Which is to say, they have to let go of their raw need to be reassured that their systemic privilege isn't really as pronounced and responsible for the station they occupy (whatever it might be) before they can effectively act in the best interests of those who do not look like them.
That reckoning doesn't come easy, and demands a level of selflessness and acceptance that many young white progressives simply refuse to acknowledge, or if they do acknowledge, are uncomfortable with actually applying to their own lives.
The inequality here is a racial one, at its core, and always has been. Financial structures and entire means of living have been built upon that, and whenever an opportunity to rectify that inequality comes up (typically in response to outright racists flexing their muscles to maintain their white power) the response by white progressives is often very mediocre, full of excuses for inaction and lack of results, and hinges on making sure nobody notices or applies heat & pressure to just how complicit they are in the system proceeding to this point.
White people wanna help but don't want to eat any of the shit we've been serving up for 200 years.
I'm just as guilty of this bullshit. I'm almost 40 years old and there are loads of examples of my knowingly benefitting from this set-up and letting it ride. There are tons of examples of me, over the course of my life, indulging in/allowing for hurtful stereotypes as scapegoats to justify to myself the easy road I get to take as a white guy. I've othered large percentages of my country's population as a means to feel better about taking advantage of a crooked system in a way available only to me as a white guy.
Trump's presidency is proof that a lot of people like me, if given the opportunity and enough time to convince themselves its best for them and their families, will let racists get their Ws because they're still stuck in a place where what's really important to them is their own illegitimate sense of comfort and their denial of complicity, and their unwillingness to assume responsibility (even if it's not theirsESPECIALLY if it's not theirs) for the inherent unfairness of that system before halfassedly attempting to fix it.
The sense of entitlement we possess, unfairly gained and almost never willingly released, is the biggest obstacle, because our fragilitycarefully cultivated over centuries of coddlingmandates that before we tend to the long-overdue work of legitimizing people who should have never been seen as illegitimate in the first place (and especially not for the reasons we deemed them as such) we first must re-establish just how bonafide and good we are, and often our progress (whatever it may be worth) stalls out there.
White people have assumed possession of the tools to basically do whatever we want, whenever we want, without much of a struggle on the way to realizing it, and not enough of us want to set all that crybaby bullshit aside and get to fucking work. Not without assurances beforehand that we're going to have it just as good as we've always had it first.
If enough of us were willing to put that work in, not only does reaching across racial and economic divides become a little bit easier, but the raw numbers of people on the other side of those divides needed to remove roadblocks on the path to progress become less important, as well.
Trump's presidency tells us we're not there yet. And we're probably not going to get there for awhile yet, either.
If this country moves forward, it's going to be despite us and our cheap-but-good intentions, not because of us. Hopefully we'll catch up once the work is done. And when we arrive late to that party maybe we'll have the good sense not to overreact when people already there flick us shit for not helping as much as we could have. I doubt it, but I'm still a naive, hopeful romantic at the end of the day.
Excellent post. It is great to recognize this about ourselves and there is great honesty and soul in what you've outlined here. But what is next is the question I pose? I want all progressives, including white progressives, to push the policy that will help fix these problems. I want to empower minorities to live and work with and amongst white people at large. I can't change hearts and minds over night, though I call out bigotry as I encounter it. But I can champion policy that helps rectify these issues.
I like Coates' article and his writing in general. And he makes fair points about some white progressives. But some, like myself, are trying to make change for the better materialize by supporting good policy.
theignoramus
Member
I read about half during break on work and lawd jesus it was pure heat.
Coates reminds me of Chomsky in the way he completely deconstructs (scornfully, I might add) American mythology surrounding itself, it's a very uncompromising style of writing but very much needed in today's climate.
Coates reminds me of Chomsky in the way he completely deconstructs (scornfully, I might add) American mythology surrounding itself, it's a very uncompromising style of writing but very much needed in today's climate.
Between the world and me is a diamond.Fantastic read. I should check out more stuff from Coates
Father_Brain
Banned
Trump didn't appeal to working class voters. The sentence you just quoted shows that he won white voters, just like prior Republican candidates. He simply used racialized economic rhetoric to win over some poorer white voters who didn't normally vote GOP.
Trump's class politics are bogus and his solutions are insolvent. Moreover, he completely failed to sway any significant number of working-class people who aren't white, a huge segment (40-50%) of American workers.
By insinuating that the working class only includes blue-collar white people, you're unknowingly perpetuating the racist, destructive myths that only white people work and that class politics must be racialized.
This is kind of a problem with the actual piece, though. TNC acknowledges that the "white working class" isn't the primary center of Trump's support, yet he nonetheless sees fit to berate "leftists" for refusing to "cope with the failure, yet again, of class unity in the face of racism." Who was attempting that last election, exactly?
Also, while the Sanders quotes he cites are all varying degrees of tone-deaf, conflating them with Lilla's DLC-esque attacks on identity politics as a whole is questionable.
Bobby Roberts
Banned
I like Coates' article and his writing in general. And he makes fair points about some white progressives. But some, like myself, are trying to make change for the better materialize by supporting good policy.
Which is to the good, and appreciated, but the drive to call attention to the work can be (and is) seen as a step back towards the grandstand rather than a step further down the road, yunno?
Not only do we need that come to Jesus moment Lex mentioned, but we also have to be a lot better at not scratching that self-congratulatory, pious itch that breaks out so clearly and strongly on our skin whenever we start to feel like maybe we're not getting enough credit for being "good allies."
Whether you want it to be read that way or not, it looks like you're making sure to take time out and ensure others are noticing your "not all white progressives" status over continuing to put in the work.
If his shoe doesn't fit you don't have to put it on—and you also don't have to stand and let everyone know how poorly he's got your foot size measured.
You can just keep walking the right path.
Between the world and me is a diamond.
Searched for it and it sounds intriguing; thanks 👍
Observing a Trump supporter in the act of deploying racism does not much perturb Kristof. That is because his defenses of the innate goodness of Trump voters and of the innate goodness of the white working class are in fact defenses of neither. On the contrary, the white working class functions rhetorically not as a real community of people so much as a tool to quiet the demands of those who want a more inclusive America.
Impressively succinct.
The American tragedy now being wrought is larger than most imagine and will not end with Trump. In recent times, whiteness as an overt political tactic has been restrained by a kind of cordiality that held that its overt invocation would scare off moderate whites. This has proved to be only half true at best. Trumps legacy will be exposing the patina of decency for what it is and revealing just how much a demagogue can get away with. It does not take much to imagine another politician, wiser in the ways of Washington and better schooled in the methodology of governanceand now liberated from the pretense of antiracist civilitydoing a much more effective job than Trump.
This is the big takeaway for me. Not only does America's white pathology allow an idiot like Trump to attain power, it also informs more competent racists and opportunists that racism can be used as a tool effectively, with little consequence.