When I hear people say "drop identity politics", I reply that I'd love to

[forjusticethunders]

But if you're of a privileged identity, you first.

Because this is "identity politics" too.

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etc etc

[Iggo]

1. "White Working Class" is still okay, though, right?

[Maru Kitteh]

9. WWC would benefit most voting with Dems, but WWC is still privileged.

They still get hired first.
They still live their lives without the weight of prejudice felt by POC, LGBTQ and other minority groups.
"Loss prevention" employees don't follow them around like they have a magnetic force around their bodies.
They are not burdened with the stereotype of being "shifty" or "lazy" before they even walk in to the first day on the job.
Cops don't pull them over for driving while white.
Cops don't kill them for having a gun while being white.
They aren't systematically passed over in school and work for the assignments that get them ahead and then passed over for promotions.
They aren't constantly asked "where are you from" because it couldn't be America right?
Or worse yet, the even more insulting "what are you?"

- ETA, can't even begin to tell you how many times I've personally fielded that last question. I'm always polite but a lifetime of that query has produced an involuntary reflex of quiet rage, and I've learned that those who ask it are somewhat more likely to hold prejudices.

[Iggo]

11. I ask because the people I talk to who are against "Identity Politics"...

...tend to be A-Okay with bemoaning the plight of the "White Working Class" in the very next breath.

[forjusticethunders]

12. Their privilege actually hurts them in the end of the day.

At least insofar as the Democratic Party is an inclusive party that seeks, at least nominally, to combat white privilege. Democratic pro-worker policies are objectively better for the white working class, but as long as the Left is seen as explicitly pro POC and specifically pro Black, white privilege will prevent racist members of the working class from uniting with POC and other minorities.

[TeamPooka]

2. K&R. Off to the Greatest Threads page with you. nt

[The Polack MSgt]

3. K&R nt

[earthside]

4. Exactly why 'identity' is so awful.

The rightwing loves identity politics and identity governance.

They segregated us by what we were before the civil rights movement and they would love to do it again.

And the Identity Politics of the left plays right into their hands.
It all becomes what you are instead of who you are.

Liberals and progressives need to renew their commitment to Martin Luther King's admonition: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."

Goods jobs, a living wage, affordable health care, for EVERYONE!

Or else we will stay divided ... just what the radical reactionary Republicans want.

[forjusticethunders]

5. So unilateral disarmament?

They get to play identity politics, we just sit there and take it. Btw, we're STILL segregated, it's just de facto, not de jure. The people who are trying to oppress others aren't going to stop just because we decide we're not going to form communities based on shared oppression anymore.

Until American politics stops revolving around what you are, not who you are, and the Left did not start this, nor did minority groups (in fact, identity politics were literally written into the Constitution), it is not in our best interests to stop organizing and advocating on identity based lines.

[quote]Good jobs, a living wage, affordable health care, for EVERYONE! [/quote]

Identity politics is why the impoverished white straight male workers ascended to the middle class under social democratic policies while everyone else remained marginalized. Identity politics is also why those SAME workers rejected the policies that lifted them to the middle class because they didn't want to share it with THOSE PEOPLE.

[earthside]

6. Too pessimistic and not revolutionary enough for me.

It is not "unilateral disarmament" to stop playing their game.

Clearly many 'white' people in the rust belt states who voted for Obama twice voted this time for Trump.
It is going to get us very far to stereotype all 'white' people, especially those feeling economic distress.
Almost everyone is perfectly happy to share prosperity with everyone else.

In the end, ultimately it is about the class struggle; keep focused.

So, let's start agitating and organizing for that ... and the difference between he reactionary right and us is that we truly want prosperity for everyone.

[bettyellen]

8. Bullshit on the "happy to share" Trumps voters are doing well, they hate Dems because they want

Prosperity to be spread around.

To pretend equal rights and civil rights for all is something we should back away from is stupid and harmful.
You bought into their framing. Too bad 2/3 of the Dem party is female or of color.

[forjusticethunders]

10. You've got to be kidding me.

No less than Marx himself said that there CAN be no victorious class struggle as long as the white worker basks in white privilege. WEB Dubois, who btw was a socialist, stated that white workers partially compensate for their exploitation with a psychological wage.The race, gender, nationality struggle IS the class struggle.

As long as white workers refuse to relinquish white privilege, they will remain vulnerable to the siren song of racism to advance the interests of the oligarchy.

[earthside]

14. You are just perpetuating the other side of a 'race' war.

'White' people are the enemy.
Nothing could make the extremist reactionaries happier.

This kind of stuck-in-the-mud thinking will doom the Democratic Party ... just like it did in November 2016.

And ... working Americans will sink lower and lower and have less and less while you and the Trumpians duke it out over "white privilege."

[JHan]

15. Whiteness as a concept has been used to divide and rule by ruling classes:

What forjusticethunders describes is exactly what happened this year , I don't understand the insistence on being blind to it -
There's a great site exploring all of this called redneckrevolt, I highlighted two of their articles here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/118759081

[hunter]

7. I refuse to use the language of the white, straight, affluent men who made Trump happen.

The devil will fuck 'em all with a cholla cactus in hell.

If I find any fault with the Democratic Party, its when we pander to these guys. Our party ought to be the party of everyone else.

wikipedia

[blue cat]

13. +1

Good statement.