Rebkeh
Rebkeh's JournalConnecting the message of economic populism to social justice concerns (UPDATED 4/10/16)
From Venn to Circle: Economic Populism and Social Justice for POC(cross-posted from http://www.democraticunderground.com/1280132543)
Let me break it down for you:
The first priority of business is to make a profit.
The first priority of government is supposed to be to serve its people.
When big business “merges” with government, its priorities take over. People no longer matter, then democracy starts to become more perception than reality.
We know this. But, hang on…
PEOPLE ARE NOT COMMODITIES! Black people know this better than anyone, seeing that this is how most of us ended up here on the continent in the first place.
The wealthy class needs “others” to be a peasant class because that’s how we were taught. “I get mine, you get none” or the softer version, “I get more, you get less.”
But how have the people up top kept this trick going for so long?
Easy. They break our legs and then call us lame, and people believe them. They blame the poor for being poor, like they had nothing to do with it. Please. They use bigotry, in all its forms, to keep people down.
But now? Their wealth has expanded so much, there aren’t enough poor black folks to support it. Not enough poor white folks either, they need MORE. They need new “others,” so what did they do?
They broke up the unions.
Now blue collar middle class folks are part of the peasant class. They are getting a little taste of what poor blacks been feeling for generations and they don't like it. Nobody likes it.
See, structural racism secures this model that keeps people commodified, income inequality is a result of that model. Now that the pool of the people getting screwed has grown, we need to come together.
The working poor getting fucked and the poc that have always been getting fucked should be natural allies. They should have been allies a long time ago but now… we REALLY got to do this. Our government has been taken over by our “friends” in big business. Nobody is safe anymore, not even the semi-rich. They will be next if we don't put a stop to it. Everyone has a dog in this fight.
Bottom line:
The commodification of people – when business merges with government and profit comes before people – is a terrible model for everyone.
Long held patterns of exploitation of poc (from slavery to now) for profit is still exploitation.
Newer patterns of exploitation of middle class whites for profit is still exploitation.
It’s the exact same model.
Edited to add:
4/10/16
For a better and more comprehensive breakdown and solutions going forward:
http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/19038/unions-labor-black-lives-matter-anti-racist-racial-justice
Connecting the message of economic populism to social justice concerns (updated 4/10/16)
From Venn to Circle: Economic Populism and Social Justice for POCLet me break it down for you:
The first priority of business is to make a profit.
The first priority of government is supposed to be to serve its people.
When big business “merges” with government, its priorities take over. People no longer matter, then democracy starts to become more perception than reality.
We know this. But, hang on…
PEOPLE ARE NOT COMMODITIES! Black people know this better than anyone, seeing that this is how most of us ended up here on the continent in the first place.
The wealthy class needs “others” to be a peasant class because that’s how we were taught. “I get mine, you get none” or the softer version, “I get more, you get less.”
But how have the people up top kept this trick going for so long?
Easy. They break our legs and then call us lame, and people believe them. They blame the poor for being poor, like they had nothing to do with it. Please. They use bigotry, in all its forms, to keep people down.
But now? Their wealth has expanded so much, there aren’t enough poor black folks to support it. Not enough poor white folks either, they need MORE. They need new “others,” so what did they do?
They broke up the unions.
Now blue collar middle class folks are part of the peasant class. They are getting a little taste of what poor blacks been feeling for generations and they don't like it. Nobody likes it.
See, structural racism secures this model that keeps people commodified, income inequality is a result of that model. Now that the pool of the people getting screwed has grown, we need to come together.
The working poor getting fucked and the poc that have always been getting fucked should be natural allies. They should have been allies a long time ago but now… we REALLY got to do this. Our government has been taken over by our “friends” in big business. Nobody is safe anymore, not even the semi-rich. They will be next if we don't put a stop to it. Everyone has a dog in this fight.
Bottom line:
The commodification of people – when business merges with government and profit comes before people – is a terrible model for everyone.
Long held patterns of exploitation of poc (from slavery to now) for profit is still exploitation.
Newer patterns of exploitation of middle class whites for profit is still exploitation.
It’s the exact same model.
Edited to add link.... for more see
http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/19038/unions-labor-black-lives-matter-anti-racist-racial-justice
The Revolution and the Disconnect
Aside from celebrity, name recognition, gender, party loyalty, low information and disengagement from the political process, aversion to the unfamiliar, fear of rocking the boat, and the desire to stay within the confines of one’s comfort zone of faux stability – besides all of these, there are still reasonable people that don’t get the revolution.
I’ve been thinking about the disconnect - why don’t politically informed and engaged liberals and progressives, highly educated in policy even, connect with Bernie’s message? It’s not denial of the dangers of neoliberalism, they know full well what is going on. It has to be more than cynicism too. Not that skepticism isn’t a problem, doubt that Americans will show up to back Bernie after the election and we are back to the daily grind of governing is not unjustified. But there is something else.
Even when there is tacit agreement on what the problems are, there is a difference in agreement in how we fix them. These differences are subtle until we discuss strategy and the outcomes from them. Incremental change on the surface is the result of what we have been doing, but at a cost. Slow progress that happens on the surface while the ground shifts rightward under our feet is no progress at all. But I digress…
The disconnect is in the framing.
Bernie frames the nation as an interconnected collective while some liberals and progressives view the nation as an intersected collection of people. One is a gathering of multiples while the other is a single group in and of itself, everyone inherently linked together in constant and symbiotic relationships. A successful revolution is a hard thing to pull off when individuals are out for themselves – herding cats is impossible. But when you view the nation as a single entity, a revolution is an easy sell. It’s actually not that hard to do, coming together for political change.
Historically, we have tried to be both a collection and a collective with varying degrees of success, but today it is becoming less and less possible to do so. Bernie’s liberal naysayers appear to think we can still do both.
Tribal unity is not the same thing as community.
Skepticism masked as realism is how most people live, which is somewhat understandable. I suspect it is also why the poc that don’t want to rock the boat don’t trust the revolution. If everyone is out for themselves, why on earth would I expect that guy over there to care about my issues? Why would I care about his?
I argue that the majority of progressives and liberals do care, we just don’t believe change is possible.
Low voter turnout and a lack of citizen engagement (democrats don’t show up in off year elections, for example) is supported by history. White liberals not showing up for black causes, on black terms and fully conscious of racial politics, is also supported by history. What else is a realist (*ahem*, a cynic) to believe?
These are fair criticisms, we shouldn’t disregard them. If we want them to switch their votes to Bernie, we need to give them a reason to have faith in us. We will come together for the cause, not just our tribes. How can we prove it?
If I had a test of 50 questions
and only answered four of them, yet still got an A? Now that's the professor I'd want!
Sadly, that's not how it works.
A special request to some of my fellow Bernie supporters
Some people (from both sides) are saying, "I will vote for____ when ____."
But they mean this: "I would vote for ____ if ____."
Or, "When _____ happens, we will _____." When they mean....
"If _____ happens, we should."
Also, "If ______ wins the nomination, I will ____"
We need to be more conscious about what we say, words matter. I've done it myself and have to slow down a bit.
Maybe I'm 
but it bugs me. 
Maybe it's 
but humor me anyway 
From March 22 to November,
Things look favorable for Bernie. Pendulums swing, my friends. Hang on. They want to call it now, they cannot. They are lying.
The media can control the narrative but they will not control the outcome.
We can do this 
What are your sources for political news?
Corporate media has been too dominant for too long and the liberal mainstream media doesn't seem to be even trying to appear progressive anymore. I held out for a while with msnbc, hoping they would eventually listen to their audience, but finally gave up some time ago. I read a variety of online sources but tend to rely on independent media. I don't watch news on tv at all anymore. The individual progressive journalists we love have their reasons to do whatever it is they do, I do not judge them. Big money is the issue here.
So, what publications do you read, what podcasts or sites do you listen and go to? Someone asked me about mine in another thread. I figure my post is worth sharing again.
Add yours to the list.
Amy Goodman and Democracy Now
http://m.democracynow.org/
Thom Hartmann Show
http://www.thomhartmann.com/
The Majority Report
http://majority.fm/report/
The Best of the Left
http://www.bestoftheleft.com/
Benjamin Dixon Show (I'm still new to this one but I like it so far)
http://www.spreaker.com/user/thebenjamindixonshow
Also,
Free Speech TV
https://t.freespeech.org/
RT America
https://m.youtube.com/user/RTAmerica
The Young Turks
https://www.tytnetwork.com/
If you have iTunes, there's a big world of podcasts there too. If no iTunes, find Stitcher podcasts (or something like that) - google it
And if you have Sirius XM (I don't), John Fugelsang has a show. He's reliably left. I hear XM has a bunch of liberal voices but I can't say for sure.
Joe Madison - The Black Eagle is another but I don't listen to it personally.
We definitely need more women and poc political podcasters. Stephanie Miller is popular but I don't know, haven't listened yet. Someone named Randi Rhodes is coming back but I'm unfamiliar with her.
Air America died but a lot of the people from then are still around. There are also many read only online publications.
There's hope yet, corporate media is not the only game in town.
Racial consciousness and the Together theme
I've been under the weather so this post is a bit late, but it's never a bad time to talk about these things.
One of the mistakes Unity seekers frequently make with black folks is they overlook the potential for erasure of poc. When unity means ignoring differences, only the "default" group gains any benefit. The injustices and inequality we face become background noise and that doesn't help anyone - except those that enjoy immediate benefits from poc injustice and inequality. In fact, it permits the status quo to keep going as it is. Look at old movies or television and notice how poc were seemingly invisible from our society. We were there, just invisible. Unless, of course, we were portrayed in a negative or stereotypical way. Then came the tokens, heavily portrayed in the 80's but improving since. We know what it means to be invisible. It's not just the usual Kumbaya criticism that is a challenge, it's also the lack of awareness of the unintended consequences white people rarely see.
Therefore, unity must include and even elevate, differences between people. It seems counter-intuitive but it's true. Black folks may not get on board if they sense they will be erased.
Here are two examples of getting it right, imo:
Android commercial Be Together, Not The Same #1 (animals)
Android commercial Be Together Not The Same #2 (piano keys)
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Member since: Sat Oct 17, 2015, 10:59 AM
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