How Populists Like Bernie Should Talk About Racism

[Rebkeh]

To mobilize a multiracial coalition, progressives need to demonstrate how racism hurts us all.

Source: The Atlantic
By Ian Haney-López and Heather McGhee

Bernie Sanders’s remarkable popularity going into the Iowa caucus shows that economic populism is ascendant on the left. And yet the notable whiteness of his followers forces an uncomfortable question about this emerging progressive coalition. It’s been 50 years since a Democratic presidential candidate won a majority of the white vote in a general election, and many liberals are understandably excited over the prospect of bringing white Reagan Democrats back into the fold. But what about the Obama Democrats, the multiracial coalition that forms the party’s present and the country’s future? Whether we can combine these constituencies is a fundamental question for the left. Can progressives finally come together around a unifying message that resonates with whites on class, people of color on race, and the 99 percent on both?

:snip:

also:

This is the race story that Sanders and every progressive leader ought to be telling every time they step to a microphone. The reactionary economic agenda made possible by dog-whistle politics is responsible not just for the devaluing of black lives but for the declining fortunes of the majority of white families.

more: http://www.thenation.com/article/how-populists-like-bernie-sanders-should-talk-about-racism/

[LemmingWarrior]

1. NAACP Endorsement

might show some results, especially in South Carolina coming up soon.

[1StrongBlackMan]

3. The NAACP hasn't offered an endorsement. eom.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

2. I recognize that there are a LOT more people out there motivated by self-interest than there are

folks motivated by pure altruism, so I never understand why politicians don't cast their altruistic ideas in terms that appeal to self-interest, just to get more people lined up behind them. As you say, show how racism hurts whites as well as blacks. How patriarchy hurts both men and women. How homophobia hurts heteros and gays alike.

The case for reparations, for instance, could be cast in terms of the ENORMOUS boost for the economy it would create, creating massive new numbers of jobs for people of all skin tones in response to the money that would flow first into AA hands, and then outwards into their communities. Trickle up, not trickle down.

[1StrongBlackMan]

4. I agree ...

there are a LOT more people out there motivated by self-interest than there are folks motivated by pure altruism, so I never understand why politicians don't cast their altruistic ideas in terms that appeal to self-interest, just to get more people lined up behind them. As you say, show how racism hurts whites as well as blacks. How patriarchy hurts both men and women. How homophobia hurts heteros and gays alike.

That is a winning approach; but, would take generations of re-programming.

The case for reparations, for instance, could be cast in terms of the ENORMOUS boost for the economy it would create, creating massive new numbers of jobs for people of all skin tones in response to the money that would flow first into AA hands, and then outwards into their communities. Trickle up, not trickle down.

And therein lays the re-programming problem ... Trickle up is only appealing when the money gets in your hands first.

Michael Eric Dyson has observed that social change proves most effective when it is bottom up, rather than, top down. When we benefit the marginalized, others benefit, as well. For example, the Civil Rights Act was initially, specifically, written to benefit race, color, and religion; but, sex was added, not as an "ah ha moment", but in an effort to sink it. With its passage, the scope of beneficiaries expanded to include women, then the other abled, then the aged ... Now, all American peoples have benefited from this bottom up measure. Likewise, Affirmative Action was designed for PoC ... the biggest beneficiaries of it have been white females.

My fear is, like labor unions, and the tenant farmers/share-cropper movement, before it, the "revolution" will follow the familiar pattern ... when white folks suffer, the call for revolution and unity amounts to "me first, and the benefits will trickle down to you"; rather than, "you first, because the benefits will percolate up to me." And, that mindset is difficult to overcome, when you are used to "getting first".

[1StrongBlackMan]

5. Great piece with plenty of food for thought. eom.

[Jefferson23]

6. Well articulated, better than many other OP's on the subject. It may be or at least it seems

to me that Sanders believes he is addressing exactly what the black community
is hoping he would do...when in reality he only gets part of it. There are minor issues I have
with the OP but important in my opinion. Corporate power has increased under
Democrats..you can't be honest and informed about NAFTA while pointing a finger
solely at Republicans. More people coming over the border after NAFTA due to
Agribusiness. This led to the ever increasing meme of hate for Hispanics and
not many on our side like to talk about that.

I have said many times how I had hoped the Democratic Party would have
held US race relations summit in DC. Two, three days where the focus
is for WHITE people to learn...hearing a cross section of black Americans
speak of their experiences, and also to include academics and political
activists on the grass roots level. Our msm media would have a hard time
ignoring such an event. They ignore reports that go back to 1999 by
the ACLU about driving while black...doesn't matter how nice a car you
have nor how nice a suit you wear, it's your color that gets you pulled
over. Although the end of legal segregation uplifted the dignity of the black
community it did not end the persistent racial bias we see today.

I hope Bernie can process this distinction, the pleas are rather clear, I think.