Black Lives or Blue Collars

Image source: 4plebs.org

The American Left was driven to choose: Do we support the Black Lives or the Blue Collars? I do not mean the blue collars of the police, but those of working people and of those who are desperate for work. Do we attempt to reduce the founding sin of slavery, which resulted in Jim Crow and persistent racism and police brutality, or do we build a more equitable nation for all of the 99%? This is, essentially, the battle that was fought in the Democratic primaries of 2016 and 2020. For better or worse (and I think for the better), that battle has been decided in favor of the Black Lives. Any attempt to undermine that decision at this point is a historic mistake.

Progressives will doubtlessly make the case that it was the white collars that really won. Maybe so, but progressives failed to convince the Black community of their case. Joe Biden was carried to the nomination by the Black vote. The same was true of Hillary Clinton in 2016. Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton also won their nominations, in part, because of women’s votes. So too, Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton won with older voters. Though a discussion about the Hispanic vote may be interesting (Sanders did well with the Hispanic vote), the image of the Sanders supporter is largely White, male, and young. Furthermore, though this is not from the data but from personal experience, the image of the Sanders supporters was young, white men who were combatively sure of their correctness.

Below the fold, I discuss why progressives are getting the short end of the political stick, and why - for now - they deserve what they get. Essentially, racism is not what they think it is. Beyond that, however, I discuss what progressives can do about changing their behavior to be more politically and socially effective. In short, it is about doing more community and fewer polemics.

False Consciousness Strikes Again?

Book cover: Racism Without Racists Color-blind Racism and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in America by Eduardo Bonilla-Silva
Image source: Multnomah County Library

Progressives will doubtlessly make the case that it was the white collars that really won. Maybe so, but progressives failed to convince the Black community of their case. Joe Biden was carried to the nomination by the Black vote. The same was true of Hillary Clinton in 2016. Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton also won their nominations, in part, because of women’s votes. So too, Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton won with older voters. Though a discussion about the Hispanic vote may be interesting (Sanders did well with the Hispanic vote), the image of the Sanders supporter is largely White, male, and young. Furthermore, though this is not from the data but from personal experience, the image of the Sanders supporters was young, white men who were combatively sure of their correctness.

The 2016 and 2020 election cycles were not the only ones that roughly demonstrated this pattern. In prior election cycles, when I was more involved, I also noticed that progressive activists (e.g. supporters of Howard Dean in 2004) actively annoyed other democrats, driving these away from progressive candidates. Though I have liked Bernie Sanders, I have found many of his supporters politically obnoxious, so much so that I called them the Berniehaddin. (Just because I have many Bernie-supporting friends doesn’t mean that I like them as a group. Now there’s an irony for those who say that they have ‘Black friends’ as proof of their non-racism.)

So much for the politics of this past year, or four years ago. These contests within the Democratic Party are part of a larger structural conflict that I want to highlight in this post. It pertains to the title of this blog: false consciousness, the idea that people work against their own best interests because of a faulty identity frame. In this case, progressives might be arguing that the Black community is the one with a bad case of the false consciousness, because the Black community may have been better off under a Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren presidency. However, in this case the false consciousness points the other way as well. I am not sure that progressives really know how they affect the identity politics around them because they are so focused on the righteousness of their own cause.

Progressives might be aghast to learn that they are seen as part of the white-male structure against which others resist themselves. The same is true of many of the working-class Trump supporters who are accused of racism. Many Trump supporters do not see their own racism. The issue is a fundamental understanding of what racism is. The false consciousness is not knowing the identity frames that one is picking up from your actions.

A book I am reading, Racism without Racists by Eduardo Bonilla-Silva, highlights that what most people think of as racism is about having opinions of inferiority of other races and then acting upon that opinion. Bonilla-Silva makes the case that what people think of as ‘being racist’ is better thought of as being prejudiced. Racism is more about maintaining a system that structures inequality between races. Even if one is not prejudiced, though I think most people are in one way or the other, that does not mean that one is not part of the maintenance of a racist system. For a politically-combative young White guy to tell an older Black woman how it is – to mansplain politics to her – is being part of that system. I wish that I could say that I was very different when I was younger. Perhaps I am still so, somewhat, now, but recognizing the problem is the first step towards recovery.

What, then, is the better way for the Black and the blue to be in better lockstep with one another? Having the common enemy is, of course, the greatest force bringing them together. But, in the event of a victory in November (or December, or…), governing will have to happen. It will not do to undermine the administration at every turn because its policies are not perfect. Doubt for a moment your own infallibility on questions of government policy and legislative politics.

The most important aspects, however, will not be in government. Instead, real life and society play themselves out everyday at the grassroots level, and they do not wait for elections. As I wrote last time, the fight in the streets of the different cities between Black Lives protestors and law enforcement, is an important development. It may be more important than the election, even as important as that is. That White allies are allies, even if they may be allies for no other reason than having a common enemy, is important. It may be more important than the election in the same way that doing one’s homework is more important than getting a passing score on a quiz. It’s the learning that matters. The on-the-street struggle for social justice is what changes society, slowly but surely.

Do Something

Another pitfall of the progressive political ‘activist’, is that so much activism tends to halt at the level of social-media argumentation. By and large, that does more harm than good. Even if it shows that there is support for progressive politics and policy, which is good, there is also the poking of the bear. The idea of false consciousness also means that you may be poking the wrong bear in the wrong direction. As I wrote above, so much progressive political activism tended to move people toward more conservative candidates simply by how annoying the progressive activists were.

What is more important is to work together to engage in activities that actually do change people’s minds: that bring people together around a common cause. Regrettably, it’s harder work and does not feel as good as telling someone you disagree with that you disagree with them, or ‘owning’ someone with a well-placed meme. “Dropping the mic” usually means that you’ve broken your mic. The only people who do not stop listening are those whom you have already convinced.

It’s not for me to say what you can do in your community to make your community better. Perhaps you go out and protest police brutality. Or, perhaps, you ask, as a concerned citizen, what your local precinct is doing to be better – showing that this is something that matters to you. Perhaps you join a local political campaign, or another form of community organization. My time organizing with the Black and Hispanic communities in San Antonio are some of my fondest and most educational memories in life. It was also humbling, because it showed me – a young white man who figured he knew something about politics – that I had so much still to learn.

Of course, if this election matters to you, then there are countless ways that you can participate in the presidential campaign or other local campaigns. However, perhaps the way to really ‘win’, is to reach out across the aisle – not to ‘aid and abet the enemy’, but to signal that they may need to rethink their own false consciousness about who you are. Like I wrote above, many Trump supporters or other conservatives, cannot fathom how they are racist, and just being told that they are racist does not change their insight, and certainly not their opinions. It pushes them into the arms of the grievance mongers, the peddlers of false consciousness, who are more than happy to take them in.

Perhaps it is because the United States does not have a large, threatening outside force to bring American society together, it is tearing itself apart. The pressure of social conflict creates centrifugal force on the society. It is regrettable that impersonal forces, such as a pandemic or an economic recession, do not provide the glue to bring a society together. The reverse seems to be the case. At the same time, the issues being dealt with by American society at this time are a necessary convulsion. An external threat bringing American society ‘together’, would prove to be a distraction.

Yet, as individuals, we are not the slaves of great structural social forces. At least, we do not have to be. We can choose not to engage in polemics on social media. If we are forced to quarantine ourselves and cannot do anything aside from social media, there is still the possibility of organizing online for community building. Reaching across aisles to solve common problems is the only way this gets solved. Of course, your opposite, be that the moderate Democrat or Republican, may not embrace you with open arms, but you may also be surprised. Of course, if that’s too scary, then there is always some other productive thing that can be done to make your community a more welcoming place to be for all involved.

Works Cited

Bonilla-Silva, E. (2018). Racism Without Racists Color-blind Racism and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in America, 5th Ed. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.