In a sharp and necessary article for The Nation, @BarbaraRansby breaks down the meaning of our current political moment in this country and why the white left needs to embrace Black leadership. thenation.com/article/activi…
@BarbaraRansby As Ransby points out, while protestors chant “Black Lives Matter,” organizers in the Movement for Black Lives are clear that the larger goal of this fight is to end racial capitalism.
@BarbaraRansby “Black poor & working-class people experience capitalism & white supremacy as intertwined: Police violence, targeted mass incarceration, and social/economic abandonment are linked. The left loses strength & credibility if it pretends that there is a colorblind class experience.”
@BarbaraRansby The white working class has historically bought into white supremacy instead of class solidarity. Much of the white working class has always bought into the material benefits of their whiteness and used this social power to enact violence against Black people of the same class.
@BarbaraRansby This is why it's important that Black leadership be upheld & respected in our liberation movements. Demanding that the white left step back & hold space for Black leadership is not about “identity politics” but rather ensuring that the movement is in the hands of the oppressed.
@BarbaraRansby The movement for Black lives cannot be led by the white left who only prioritize class. Based on the white supremacist history of the white working class in this country, it is clear that anti-Blackness & capitalism are heavily intertwined. Black leftists always address both.
@BarbaraRansby This is relevant in Ransby's discussion of Bernie Sanders’ failure to articulate a clear commitment to fighting the white supremacist underpinnings of racial capitalism. “There were many strengths in Sanders’s campaign, but this may have been its fatal flaw.”
@BarbaraRansby She also discusses the rise in popularity of Democratic Socialists of America since Trump’s election & the org’s lack of Black leadership at the national level. DSA should prioritize changes that'll open the doors to Black left leadership and uplift the goals of Black liberation.
@BarbaraRansby Black-led social movements like Black Lives Matter & M4BL have been creating waves across the nation since 2012 & affecting this country’s racial consciousness. The BLM uprisings from 2012-16 are connected to the protests in 2020. Ferguson and Minneapolis are directly connected.
@BarbaraRansby Ransby: “In 2017, M4BL launched a multiracial formation of over 80 organizations called the Rising Majority. This alone is a reversal of the usual practice of large white-led formations...adding Black-led organizations to the mix after the foundations are laid."
@BarbaraRansby It is clear that liberalism isn’t enough for this political moment. White leftists who see themselves as radical are also not doing enough if they imagine that the correct approach to the violence against Black life is to prioritize class and neglect race.
@BarbaraRansby “If the white left embraces this ascendant Black leadership, we will all be stronger for it. This is a time for rigorous debate, principled solidarity, and humble determination. And right now, I see more and more of all of those things.” — @BarbaraRansby
