Thread by @ClintSmithIII

The framing of the "race vs class" debate that resurfaces on here every few months feels incredibly reductive. It's both. It's those things & more. Racism, capitalism, sexism all engage with one another & have unique material impacts on the how different ppl experience the world.

One can recognize that progressive policy like a jobs guarantee or a living wage or medicare for all are things we should fight for & things that are important while *also* recognizing that those things alone won't close the racial wealth gap. Both of those things can be true.

Acknowledging that white supremacy is an omnipresent fixture in american political life *is not* mutually exclusive from acknowledging how certain universal policies can help black communities which *is not* mutually exclusive from recognizing tht black ppl will *still* be behind

But this idea I see being thrown around that we should pit the experiences of poor white ppl against middle class black ppl & see who has it harder in society is unhelpful & bizarre. Poverty is immoral. Racism is evil. You fight both, you don't pit them against one another.

Robin D.G. Kelly on racial capitalism: "Capitalism and racism, in other words, did not break from the old order but rather evolved from it to produce a modern world system of “racial capitalism” dependent on slavery, violence, imperialism, and genocide."

bostonreview.net/race/robin-d-g…