Thread by @timjacobwise

But Matt, by your standard we would never discuss racial inequity at all for fear of upsetting white people. Why not use the race/class combo framing of @IanHaneyLopez and get at both issues. You are throwing in the towel on solidarity altogether so as to pander to white racism..

https://twitter.com/mattyglesias/status/1369287671521099779

I wrote a book on this, Colorblind, which shows why class centric, race-phobic messaging actually doesn't work the way many think. It never has. And in this case it is once again telling POC to be quiet about their issues so we can attend to the needs of Joe Sixpack...

And yes, I agree that @IanHaneyLopez doesn't advocate front loading with race, but showing the interest convergence of race and class. But it seems like you really want to avoid race altogether, which is both morally and strategically absurd

The idea that white folks support universal programs of uplift so long as they don't see them as redistributive ignores that for 50 yrs they've been told all such things are, and they believe it...

and the right knows they can push those buttons and make them think it again...so the race frame will be there, like it or not. White folks don't like universality BECAUSE it is universal and they think POC are undeserving...

only when you pretty much cut POC out of programs altogether or limit their participation (as with New Deal programs, Social Security early on, FHA, etc) do they rally behind them...

We can't just finesse that. The right made ACA viewed as racial handout FFS...not bc Obama spoke of the racial aspect (he did not), but bc the right can make any such effort seem like a handout to POC...

Progressives have to confront that manipulation openly, which is what @IanHaneyLopez is discussing it seems: focus on how the right plays upon white fears and uses these buttons to shut down solidarity...

But that doesn't mean we don't talk about the racial equity benefits of public policy too. It just means we do what @hmcghee discusses, meaning the interest convergence of those things for all. Maybe you agree and I'm reading you wrong here...

But it's exhausting seeing folks act as though the problem with getting progressive policy implemented is Black and brown folks and white antiracists talking too much about racism, rather than white racism itself, which those same critics have zero ideas about addressing