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In reply to the discussion: Carville was right. Here's why it doesn't matter [View all]Beastly Boy
(9,509 posts)is still yours.
I posted elsewhere that finding a white Democrat who is fully versed in what "woke" stands for is quite rare. Indeed, you may have insight into whether the understanding of the term is commonplace among black and brown Democratic voters, but that is a different issue.Having people like Carville explain civil rights and social justice issues from the perspective of a black or brown person to a white person not affected by the issues, I wrote, is like someone who just learned a foreign language speaking this language to someone who doesn't know it at all. From the perspective of a black or a brown person, his effort will by definition be inadequate. You may be tired of explaining "it" to white people, but this doesn't absolve you of the responsibility to continue, and do so without alienating or dismissing white working class voters.If you consider yourself a social justice activist, abdicating your civic responsibilities to people like Carville is not an option.
Besides, Carville is not a civil rights activist. He is poorly equipped to address issues of social justice. He is a strategist. And he sees the attitudes of white working class voters towards wokefullness as an obstacle to winning elections. He sees losing these voters as a sure path to Democrats losing elections, which in itself would be the most severe blow to civil rights and social justice you can imagine.We just went through four years of it, and the damage was devastating.
Why won't you help people like Carville achieve their goals? Why outright dismiss reaching out to white working class people who hate you? Not appease them, but reach out to them with a well defined and well understood aim of educating them. There is no white person who can do it better than you. Why abandon taking small steps in favor of taking no steps at all?