On Racial Justice

People have a lot of legitimate questions for me on racial justice and I’m here to answer them. I’m against systemic racism and actively work against it. People can see clearly that it’s true because I show up over and over again fighting racism at rallies marches and more for years and years. This is a deep value I hold that comes from my youth to ever greater sophistication as an adult and I learn more all the time. I’m not new to this belief of the need for equality. The historical debt our country owes black people, Native Americans, Latinos, Asians and others around the world that we have oppressed for profit at the expense of human rights, dignity and freedom is enormous.

My orientation is a bit different than some folks who I respect for their commitment to the cause of antiracism but I find some differences. My framework ties my antiracism more through an anti imperialist lens, a lens that understands the power elite’s capitalist control and a lens that is for greater economic equality as well as the historical contexts around oppressions. These other large systems that guide our society use systemic racism to their nefarious unfair, unjust and disreputable goals of power and control by an elite that gives scraps and fuels division of the working class. That systemic racism was made as a tool for these other goals rather than a goal unto itself alone. There has always been bias and prejudice for others, and we need to fight that, teach compassion, that diversity is a strength, that our differences make us stronger, that different cultures bring richness to our lives and spirit. We do need to always teach these things to create a beloved community. Systemic racism though is a tool by the power elite to divide working people because divided people are easily controlled.

We need to teach the history of slavery, genocide, wars and oppression so that we can undo the damage that still exists and prevent it from going forward. This country has been bombing about nine different countries full of brown people, spreading misery and death. The US has built something like 40 bases across Africa that will undoubtedly kill black people. The US is embargoing brown people in countries like Venezuela and Cuba making their people’s lives suffer. My understanding of racism includes all of this in it. Talking about systemic racism in the US unconnected to the US militarism or unconnected to the racial wealth gap both here and internationally, means that we’re talking about a very small sliver of what systemic racism truly is.

There are plenty of people who seek to steer conversations of systemic racism away from these areas. I am someone who often says, “yes and” when I speak about racism. While I am happy that racial justice groups are smashing the ceilings that prevented upward mobility for talented black leaders in boardrooms at major corporations and the state, I have continually said what about the poor people of color? At the same time I also say what about poor white people?

That second point gets me in trouble with certain antiracist groups who refer to some white people as trash. But for me, being from Appalachia and understanding the history of poor white folks supporting poor black folks in their struggle against racial prejudice it makes sense. From the Young Patriots who were Appalachians living in Chicago who worked with the Black Panthers and the Young Lords or before that in Oklahoma where the Populist Party began forming, that originally found it’s power in routinely arguing that poor white people and poor black people had the commonality of being farmers oppressed by the same horrible landlords and banks. To seeing Noam Chomsky speak in Portland in 2010 about how the rise in the Tea Party movement was partially due to the fact that the left wasn’t organizing poor whites. To this day, when I see the rise of the alt-right staging rallies in Berkeley, Portland and Olympia, not because they have strength in these towns but because the reactionary politics that create and feed their base in other parts of the country feeds off the divisiveness of the videos. We’ve seen these groups grow at the same time as the mainstream version of antiracism also grew and I often think that some of it could be avoided. I often wonder why half the people killed by police being white (all of them poor) has not brought a unified poor people’s movement against the police state. I can’t help but think there are bad actors that want to make sure that the goal of systemic racism stays, which is in stopping the unification of poor people around their common interests against the power elite, while the power elite become more diverse in color although still utterly divorced from their humanity.

Keep in mind, while I have these perspectives, I still show up for protests on the street, rallies and events against racism even if they fail to address these other issues, which they usually fail at. Because internalized racism is a major issue for all people. Micro-aggressions are a thing. All white people do have white privilege (although when a white hipster with a college degree and a nice job typing on a keyboard, talks down to a poor white worker about their privilege or their language, that’s also a pretty ignorant thing to do for the hipster.) If intersectionality did better than lipservice about factoring for poverty then it might become a more useful tool for racial justice, but no matter how pretty their theory looks to university professors in social sciences, it doesn’t work on the streets.

And look there are plenty of people who care about US imperialism, classism, militarism and have a bad perspective on racial justice but that’s not me. I have fully integrated antiracism into my analysis on these issues. I’m a working class thinker. My frame of reference comes from my own struggle and seeing those that struggle around me and how and in often much worse ways because of race, gender and sexual orientation. I’ve worked enough hard labor jobs to recognize that the hardest working laborers are usually people of color and that their wages are usually less because the owner is a goddamn racist asshole. That when I’ve had to go to court, the courtrooms and jails are disproportionately poor people of color. That when I am standing in line at the food bank there are disproportionately more poor people of color.

I’ve been fortunate being a white person because of that privilege in many ways but I also understand that as a working class person in a broken society, that creates the world’s richest men while people live homeless on the street, that my life could be more secure. That the way for my life to be better is working side by side with people of color for fair wages, healthcare, housing, dentistry, paid maternity leave and more. My liberation is wrapped up in the liberation of others. I have a personal stake in fighting racism. That is solidarity. Sometimes I think other antiracism work just feels like performative charity by richer people who want to assuage their guilt.

And I hate performative politics. I hate when white people, overcompensate for their white guilt to the point that they treat the people of color they used to ignore as some sort of object they now cast compliments and gifts. The problems with this is manifold. It’s not fessing up to the huge wealth gap that is now the root of the problem. It’s not committed to victory because the white priesthood of anti-oppression theory don’t actually care if their efforts lead to justice as much as they care about being seen on the side of justice. In my world people of color are real people, you treat them like real people, and if you’re not inherently fake or an asshole that means respect, especially for elders, love for children and comradeship for coworkers and scorn for the rich. You also do it with an understanding that as a white person you can’t possibly know the endless bullshit that people of color routinely go through and you need to listen on it and act in support. You also act strategically for liberation because your not being performative you are in there seeking victory and you have skin in the game.

And hipster white performative anti racist activists sometimes dislike when you call them on it. Sometimes they even target you.

Poor people are usually the most giving people because of solidarity, they’ve been there. There is a bible verse, I’m not so good at quoting bible verses, but it goes something like this. Jesus was with Peter and was welcoming in all the people to the church and collecting money. A woman walks in and drops two coins in the collection plate and Jesus said to Peter, “this woman is the most giving.” Peter said something like, “but that guy over there gave way more money!” To which Jesus replied “yeah but he’s rich and this lady’s donation was way more in proportion of her income!” Then he says, “that rich guy has about as much chance to get into heaven as a camel threading the eye of a needle.” Then Jesus walked up to the money changers, flipped over their tables and told them to get the hell out.

I try to live by that example from the bible although I am not religious. I’m giving as much as I can. I’m standing up against the powerful. I house people when I can. I am organizing when I can with who I can. And I need people of color communities because without them there is no chance for justice.

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”