There was a time where pointing this out (that anti-white male content was unproductive) would get you an incredible amount of backlash that it became easier to stay quiet.
Now we have to deal with radicalized White Nationalists who are actively organizing across the country.
We’re seeing a parallel issue occur with Black Americans and Hispanic Immigrants.
Black Americans have felt actively disenfranchised by immigration for decades - from being quietly discriminated against with “Bilingual” favoring job opportunities that cut them out to being terrorized out of their neighborhoods.
While this happened liberal media ignored this reality, doubled down on the “Black and Brown” coalition, and resentment built.
The result is a growing number of Black Americans who have no care in the immigrant struggle.
Why look out for other groups when it seems no one looks out for you?
The damage has been done and we’re going to have to “go through it” to get through it.
One thing for sure is that it’s going to take more than emotional appeals, finger wagging, and morally abstract ideas to fix the issue.
Thank you for this, I really appreciate it. The other problem with identify politics is that the way they are put forth is appealing to the powers that be to be nice to us -- listen to the chants at any liberal protest -- it's rather that we need to *be* the powers that be, and on that journey we include all marginalized people in that movement. As you say here, only a working class made up of everybody who works has the power to do this. I imagine you've read Catherine Liu -- she alludes to many of the same things you say here.
Exactly this! And this is the problem that identity politics has been made appealing because it completely obstructs the real purpose of fighting back! People meet up to be with people similar to them to feel safe but there’s no talks really happening about how to advance social justice and once we’ve talked about the issues related to our identities how do we link them with other working people and this has just increased more division than anything else and we need to reconsider how to link all our issues together!
Thank you for this. I've been growing more and more skeptical of IDpol over the years, especially since liberals weaponized it against the Sanders campaigns... I have my own strong criticisms of Bernie but 2016 and 2020 made it obvious that liberals have no shame in tokenizing swaths of the electorate and pandering with superficial language. Unfortunately, I think it still works on a lot of people.
I feel you! Liberals will always use IDpol against the ones who are more on the left of liberalism to make sure those people to completely turn their backs on liberalism so the system works as intended. It worked on Bernie, he is still a liberal just on the left wing of liberalism but still a liberal after all and these days that’s something you can see massively as he is used as controlled opposition to rally the undecided and people ready to leave the democrats back to the Dems. He’s going on that “Fight the oligarchy” tour to have people to vote Dems next election, the Dems that are also funded by the Oligarchs! I wish more people would realise this and build a real opposition party instead and come together for the better good of everyone, but no, we’re still petty fighting over IDpol and barely moving forward 😭
I've been feeling very conflicted about the Bernie/AOC tour. On the one hand I completely agree with you and am skeptical that it will result in anything but compromise with the Democratic Party, who will eventually sell out poor and working people like they have for the last 50 years. On the other hand, I'm trying to be hopeful that at the very least, these Bernie rallies are (intentionally or not) helping to cement a (very basic) level of class consciousness that hasn't been seen or experienced in generations. It's definitely not enough. But a lot of my friends who used to be diehard liberal and apologists for the likes of Barack Obama etc, have been drifting further left since 2016 because of the doors that Bernie's "radlib" rhetoric cracked open.
The hope that I see in all of this is the leftists warning of the trap in order to have people to actually build a real opposition party and not the lukewarm opposition that Bernie/AOC offer in the façade! So yes, there are more talks about class consciousness which is great I just hope people would not take the criticism personally and just understand and unite for a real opposition party! Now is the time, and the time to let go of the controlled opposition the system sends in order to maintain itself as long as possible! The US needs a vanguard party, the country is on the verge of collapse! I really hope more people are going to wake up and rally for a true socialist change!
Intellectually I agree, but in practice my experience is that there are still too many white men and women, able bodied, straight cis folks who are very quick to center themselves in these working class spaces without any awareness of their privilege and arrogance when they step in a room. It’s all well and good to say we need to do this but that doesn’t make organizing with these folks safe for the marginalized. This is definitely something we need to do but white cis, able bodied people are going to have to hurry up and level up so that it is even possible. Otherwise it’s a though experiment with the possibility of real harm being done that won’t ever be addressed in order to push forward into solidarity, I can’t be in class solidarity with people who don’t respect my right to exist without harm in spaces where we are supposed to be supporting all. Not saying it’s impossible, but we need better ideas that just “forget identity politics because it’s breaking us apart”. It’s racist, sexism, homophobia, transphobia and ableism that have already torn us apart. Identity politics holds us accountable to the work individuals still have to do to secure the movement and build on it, to skip this step is basically trying to brush the past under the rug - always more acceptable and easy to do for those who benefit from not being held accountable. (Just my 2 cents from experience with this in organizing with a working class group).
I’m not saying identity politics is should be completely ignored, I’m saying the way it’s been apprehended so far has been carefully controlled to divide us and avoid any unity! I am not one to say that (white) cis, straight able bodied people should google things, because when you know how the algorithm works, depending on where they live and all that, google can make things worse! At some point, the people who have great resources have to take upon themselves to share the knowledge around. Because how are those people supposed to be made aware if nobody is stepping up?
Basically this idea that we should not talk to each other and just push people aside is not helping us at all! I’m going to write about reparative justice at some point, because it’s something that is never talked about and needs to be addressed so we don’t lose people to the cause and how we make sure they have learned and grown from their mistakes!
This is a very complex subject, peeling all the layers would have been so long (even too long for Substack 😅) but I am mostly pointing out at the exclusion process identity politics has been doing which has not included how to then included the masses so we can think deeper in ways to use identity politics to unite and create a strong and effective working class, because the ruling class has that and we need that even stronger since we outnumber them!
Heard and totally agree. I look forward to reading that one. My experience of reparative justice is that there is none normally but people think they are practicing it. But that’s definitely baked into the culture, especially with the most privileged folks around who often take up a lot of space in the center and then end up part of the restoration process. Your additional comment reminds me of Adrienne Marie Brown’s book - We Will Not Cancel Us - which I love. I think ultimately where I live, what I’m noticing is a lack of folks with wisdom and practiced knowledge of what community tending and restorative justice looks like which then just doubles down on the problems we are having with how to deal with harm. Thanks again for your additional comment. Appreciate the discussion and look forward to reading more. 💖
Thank you so, so much!! I’m so glad the interconnectedness of things came out clear for you here! Truly hoping it will help dig deeper into finding ways to create solidarity with disaffected white people!
This is a wonderful article! You eloquently put into words what has been on my mind a lot recently. At times like these, class solidarity is really important! (Also, I too was radicalised by Michael Parenti. He’s a great introduction to Marxism)
So happy that this piece is resonating with you!! It’s really something I’ve had in my mind for a while and in these times, I think it’s really important to reconsider the ways in which we fight back, and we can’t fight back divided! And Parenti is truly the best!!!
It reminds of this great quote from Fred Hampton: “When I talk about the masses, I'm talking about the white masses, I'm talking about the black masses, and the brown masses, and the yellow masses, too. We've got to face the fact that some people say you fight fire best with fire, but we say you put fire out best with water. We say you don't fight racism with racism. We're gonna fight racism with solidarity.”
To think Hampton was killed by the FBI for uniting the working people, truly shows how scared capitalism is of a united people! He was such a principled marxist, so in awe of him and learned so much from his speeches, writings and overall dedication!
There was a time where pointing this out (that anti-white male content was unproductive) would get you an incredible amount of backlash that it became easier to stay quiet.
Now we have to deal with radicalized White Nationalists who are actively organizing across the country.
We’re seeing a parallel issue occur with Black Americans and Hispanic Immigrants.
Black Americans have felt actively disenfranchised by immigration for decades - from being quietly discriminated against with “Bilingual” favoring job opportunities that cut them out to being terrorized out of their neighborhoods.
While this happened liberal media ignored this reality, doubled down on the “Black and Brown” coalition, and resentment built.
The result is a growing number of Black Americans who have no care in the immigrant struggle.
Why look out for other groups when it seems no one looks out for you?
The damage has been done and we’re going to have to “go through it” to get through it.
One thing for sure is that it’s going to take more than emotional appeals, finger wagging, and morally abstract ideas to fix the issue.
Thank you for this, I really appreciate it. The other problem with identify politics is that the way they are put forth is appealing to the powers that be to be nice to us -- listen to the chants at any liberal protest -- it's rather that we need to *be* the powers that be, and on that journey we include all marginalized people in that movement. As you say here, only a working class made up of everybody who works has the power to do this. I imagine you've read Catherine Liu -- she alludes to many of the same things you say here.
Exactly this! And this is the problem that identity politics has been made appealing because it completely obstructs the real purpose of fighting back! People meet up to be with people similar to them to feel safe but there’s no talks really happening about how to advance social justice and once we’ve talked about the issues related to our identities how do we link them with other working people and this has just increased more division than anything else and we need to reconsider how to link all our issues together!
Thank you for this. I've been growing more and more skeptical of IDpol over the years, especially since liberals weaponized it against the Sanders campaigns... I have my own strong criticisms of Bernie but 2016 and 2020 made it obvious that liberals have no shame in tokenizing swaths of the electorate and pandering with superficial language. Unfortunately, I think it still works on a lot of people.
I feel you! Liberals will always use IDpol against the ones who are more on the left of liberalism to make sure those people to completely turn their backs on liberalism so the system works as intended. It worked on Bernie, he is still a liberal just on the left wing of liberalism but still a liberal after all and these days that’s something you can see massively as he is used as controlled opposition to rally the undecided and people ready to leave the democrats back to the Dems. He’s going on that “Fight the oligarchy” tour to have people to vote Dems next election, the Dems that are also funded by the Oligarchs! I wish more people would realise this and build a real opposition party instead and come together for the better good of everyone, but no, we’re still petty fighting over IDpol and barely moving forward 😭
I've been feeling very conflicted about the Bernie/AOC tour. On the one hand I completely agree with you and am skeptical that it will result in anything but compromise with the Democratic Party, who will eventually sell out poor and working people like they have for the last 50 years. On the other hand, I'm trying to be hopeful that at the very least, these Bernie rallies are (intentionally or not) helping to cement a (very basic) level of class consciousness that hasn't been seen or experienced in generations. It's definitely not enough. But a lot of my friends who used to be diehard liberal and apologists for the likes of Barack Obama etc, have been drifting further left since 2016 because of the doors that Bernie's "radlib" rhetoric cracked open.
The hope that I see in all of this is the leftists warning of the trap in order to have people to actually build a real opposition party and not the lukewarm opposition that Bernie/AOC offer in the façade! So yes, there are more talks about class consciousness which is great I just hope people would not take the criticism personally and just understand and unite for a real opposition party! Now is the time, and the time to let go of the controlled opposition the system sends in order to maintain itself as long as possible! The US needs a vanguard party, the country is on the verge of collapse! I really hope more people are going to wake up and rally for a true socialist change!
Intellectually I agree, but in practice my experience is that there are still too many white men and women, able bodied, straight cis folks who are very quick to center themselves in these working class spaces without any awareness of their privilege and arrogance when they step in a room. It’s all well and good to say we need to do this but that doesn’t make organizing with these folks safe for the marginalized. This is definitely something we need to do but white cis, able bodied people are going to have to hurry up and level up so that it is even possible. Otherwise it’s a though experiment with the possibility of real harm being done that won’t ever be addressed in order to push forward into solidarity, I can’t be in class solidarity with people who don’t respect my right to exist without harm in spaces where we are supposed to be supporting all. Not saying it’s impossible, but we need better ideas that just “forget identity politics because it’s breaking us apart”. It’s racist, sexism, homophobia, transphobia and ableism that have already torn us apart. Identity politics holds us accountable to the work individuals still have to do to secure the movement and build on it, to skip this step is basically trying to brush the past under the rug - always more acceptable and easy to do for those who benefit from not being held accountable. (Just my 2 cents from experience with this in organizing with a working class group).
I’m not saying identity politics is should be completely ignored, I’m saying the way it’s been apprehended so far has been carefully controlled to divide us and avoid any unity! I am not one to say that (white) cis, straight able bodied people should google things, because when you know how the algorithm works, depending on where they live and all that, google can make things worse! At some point, the people who have great resources have to take upon themselves to share the knowledge around. Because how are those people supposed to be made aware if nobody is stepping up?
Basically this idea that we should not talk to each other and just push people aside is not helping us at all! I’m going to write about reparative justice at some point, because it’s something that is never talked about and needs to be addressed so we don’t lose people to the cause and how we make sure they have learned and grown from their mistakes!
This is a very complex subject, peeling all the layers would have been so long (even too long for Substack 😅) but I am mostly pointing out at the exclusion process identity politics has been doing which has not included how to then included the masses so we can think deeper in ways to use identity politics to unite and create a strong and effective working class, because the ruling class has that and we need that even stronger since we outnumber them!
Heard and totally agree. I look forward to reading that one. My experience of reparative justice is that there is none normally but people think they are practicing it. But that’s definitely baked into the culture, especially with the most privileged folks around who often take up a lot of space in the center and then end up part of the restoration process. Your additional comment reminds me of Adrienne Marie Brown’s book - We Will Not Cancel Us - which I love. I think ultimately where I live, what I’m noticing is a lack of folks with wisdom and practiced knowledge of what community tending and restorative justice looks like which then just doubles down on the problems we are having with how to deal with harm. Thanks again for your additional comment. Appreciate the discussion and look forward to reading more. 💖
Phenomenal writing. You covered such a wide range of interconnnected factors in a very
succinct way. Thank you for sharing, it is helpful as I’ve been trying to make sense of how to build solidarity with disaffected white people
Thank you so, so much!! I’m so glad the interconnectedness of things came out clear for you here! Truly hoping it will help dig deeper into finding ways to create solidarity with disaffected white people!
This is a wonderful article! You eloquently put into words what has been on my mind a lot recently. At times like these, class solidarity is really important! (Also, I too was radicalised by Michael Parenti. He’s a great introduction to Marxism)
So happy that this piece is resonating with you!! It’s really something I’ve had in my mind for a while and in these times, I think it’s really important to reconsider the ways in which we fight back, and we can’t fight back divided! And Parenti is truly the best!!!
It reminds of this great quote from Fred Hampton: “When I talk about the masses, I'm talking about the white masses, I'm talking about the black masses, and the brown masses, and the yellow masses, too. We've got to face the fact that some people say you fight fire best with fire, but we say you put fire out best with water. We say you don't fight racism with racism. We're gonna fight racism with solidarity.”
To think Hampton was killed by the FBI for uniting the working people, truly shows how scared capitalism is of a united people! He was such a principled marxist, so in awe of him and learned so much from his speeches, writings and overall dedication!
💯💯💯