Thread by @Cajsa

Dear @TheAtlantic
Enough with these bad takes on why the Democrats need to privilege white working class men.
theatlantic.com/magazine/archi…

What's wrong with this article? Just about every damn thing.
1) The author wrote an essay on Election Night, 2016, expanded it into a book and in the two years since then has not revisited her ideas critically despite deeper and more informed data on who voted and why.

She came to her conclusions and she is sticking to them and who cares what research is published by the National Academy of Sciences, she had insight on Election Night. pnas.org/content/115/19…

2) She defines working class as "household incomes between the 30th and 80th percentiles." Why? Most define working class as 25-55th percentile and the middle class as 55-85th. Why such a broad middle class? Does her data not work if she uses normal ranges?

3) She's giving advice to Democrats but seems to have no idea what the Democratic Party platform is. She talks about jobs, education, etc .Has she seen the platform, the policies Dems run on? They don't run on free gumbies for all.

She's like the people who said Clinton ignored the working class while they ignored Clinton's policies and words, most of which were about jobs, workers, and inequality. It's not the Democrats fault if writers for @TheAtlantic are too lazy to do their damn jobs .

It's probably not laziness. She's the writer who will watch a 20-minute speech on infrastructure, how rural America needs high-speed internet access to attract good jobs and how green jobs can revitalize coal country & fixate on Hillary introducing a Mother of the Movement

And walk away thinking all Hillary talks about is racism. She will do the same to all Democrats now. They might give a speech about universal pre-K or affordable tuition, but someone might ask a question about Trump & her takeaway is Dems are fixated on impeachment, not WWC

3) She argues the "economic anxiety" is central to populism which is sort of true. It is the lettuce and tomato on the Carl's Jr burger that lets you pretend it's not all about the fat and greasy bacon cheeseburger of racism. See, it's got lettuce & tomatoes! It's good for you.

Parenthetically, I have never eaten a Carl's Jr. burger because the founder was a John Birch racist fuck. That's why I picked it as a metaphor.

But come on, the economic anxiety made me vote for Trump bullshit has long been dismantled and a 2018 take spouting that BS should have been binned.

4) Then she says "opposing open borders isn't racist" which is the biggest straw man opinion of them all. Who exactly is promoting open borders? No one. She presents a false position held by no one and attacks it. Shame on her and Shame on @TheATlantic for letting it stand.

Then she makes the false argument that Democrats are not prioritizing jobs and working class needs and instead are focusing on immigration. Clearly she does not give a damn about kids in cages.

5) Her last argument, Racism is not a working class problem, it's a white problem is true. That fact also undercuts everything she has said so far. Anti-racists know that racism is a white problem at every income level.

Which is why they talk about racism and the need to oppose racism, because it's a universal conflict. What this yahoo does not understand, what all the class first and fuck the rest of you contingent does not understand is

6) Advocating for human rights always includes advocating for economic justice because fair wages, job security, health care, and education are all considered human rights, Look at the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Y

On the other hand, historically economic justice progressives have left out human rights. Economic justice policies have privileged Whites and excluded POC and exacerbated racial disparities in wealth and opportunity. The New Deal created middle-class wealth for Whites Only.

Since economic justice campaigns do not necessarily include racial justice, but racial justice campaigns are impossible without economic justice, there is only one moral choice. Anyone who advocates class>race is advocating for Jim Crow, however politely they pretend otherwise.

And no, this author is not hiding a sheet in her closet. She's a liberal, a progressive, and probably has several Black friends. She probably thinks Black Lives Matter have a point, but wishes they would be more "strategic"

But you know those Tea Party folks marching around with guns and threatening to water the tree of liberty with some blood and burning Obama in effigy had a point and they were embraced.

The greatest intellectual disability is white privilege. It doesn't just make you unable to perceive the world, it makes you unable to perceive yourself. It makes White anger powerful and Black anger threatening, White poverty is poignant & Black poverty is deserved. Do better. /