2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: While I support the overall BLM movement, the group's so-called "representatives" have lost me. [View all]Beartracks
(12,852 posts)From what I can tell, Bernie's supporters (of all races) are trying to make the point (or as some would snidely call it, "whitesplain" that racism in America does not exist in a vacuum apart from other issues like economic inequality.
Racism definitely is its own issue, and even getting all AA folks out of poverty isn't going to end racism, since there are always racist a**holes who will hate blacks regardless of -- or perhaps because of? -- their economic status. HOWEVER... economic inequality impacts blacks disproportionately, and can be a mechanism to "keep them in their place." While attacking overt racism head-on is necessary, so is correcting economic injustice -- because not only will that serve to improve their lives, it will also give blacks more mainstream political clout (correction: others will finally recognize it as mainstream).
Furthermore, lifting a lot of whites out of poverty, too, will mitigate the economic desperation that makes their brains such fertile ground for conservative, racist, blame-your-neighbor bullshit to flourish.