Thread by @dissentingj

🧵1/3 #middleclass #workingclass #race #gender #class #chrismurphy #davidsirota #berniesanders #Democrats #Republicans
After every election cycle ending with major Dem losses, progressive white men (and Jill Stein) emerge from the shadows to blame the Dem party for not working to attract "the" working class or middle class (they seem to use the terms interchangeably). They are so blind to implicit racism and sexism that they cannot even understand how insulting their comments are.

Although I would love to see the Dems embrace economic justice openly and explicitly, these comments reflect bigotry because every POC demographic prefers Dem candidates, even though whites do not. Among these groups are many of the poorest segments in the US. Latina and Black-women headed households are THE poorest in the country. And anyone who wants to discuss the "working class," should at least know that Black workers have the highest rate of participation in labor unions. Yet, they are totally ignored when the pseudo-Marxist white men urge Dems to focus on the working class.

Generally, POC have been critical and reliable demographics for Dems. And despite all of the chatter about Trump's performance with Blacks and Latinos, he overwhelming lost Blacks and Latinas. After the Census update and the most accurate data on voting behavior are released next year, I would not be surprised if some of these categories, including Latino men, were adjusted upwardly to reflect greater support for Harris.

2/3
Why do some of the most vulnerable populations in the US -- including those that are disproportionately working-class, middle-class, and poor -- back Dems, but whites do not? Even if you don't or cannot answer this question, you still must admit that only "certain" middle/working class voters back Republicans. These people are overwhelmingly White. That's what makes these pseudo-Marxist arguments so insulting. The "what about the working-class" refrain relies on making racial minorities--especially women in these groups--INVISIBLE. This is NOT progressive. It's racist. Progressive racism -- and sexism.

I am also turned off by these arguments because the proponents seem like they have NEVER heard of intersectionality. For people of color, race, class, and gender have always been aspects of their experiences with subordination Accordingly, they cannot divorce their economic condition from race or gender. Their lived experience AND sociological data validate their multidimensional understanding of inequality. If we really want equal justice, we need more than tossing trite phrases like neoliberalism and working class into debates. Yes, these things are important, but they don't come close to explaining oppression in the US (not even for white poor people -- who have intersectional experiences too).

This rhetoric also bothers because I believe the pseudo Marxist are trying, unsuccessfully, to mask their true goal: to eliminate race, gender, LGBTQ, disability, and other concerns from the realm of Dem politics. It's no coincidence that these issues don't touch them personally in a negative way.

3/3
Ironically, they commonly believe that "identity politics" is a losing strategy. WHAT THE HELL? The Republicans run on identity politics every single time. And they often win BECAUSE of (not in spite of) identity politics. Republicans run on the politics of white identity (think: lying about and banning Critical Race Theory -- research conducted largely by POC, reflecting the viewpoints of most POC, and challenging Republican rugged individualism mythology), Christian nationalism, heterosexism, transphobia, ableism, class warfare (poor people are lazy), racist/xenophobia (they don't hate all migrants or even undocumented migrants--just brown and black migrants).

So to @ChrisMurphyCT @BernieSanders @davidsirota and many others, do the introspection necessary to have a credible voice in this conversation. Those of us who are POC, LGBTQ, women, disabled, and all of the various intersections have been forced to validate our existence since childhood. It's absolutely maddening when so-called allies attempt to write us out of existence yet again. Wake up.

Please do not respond with "I'm a POC, and I believe" (your anecdote does not defeat data); I am gay/a woman/a migrant, so I can't be raci----(stop midsentence: you can be); you folks always focus on race (race has been a problem in the US from the very inception, and it remains one today - see the data I discuss). I will block. I don't tolerate gaslighting. Find someone who does.