Can We Have A Toughtful/Respectful Discussion Of Civil Rights Versus Income Inequality ???

[JDPriestly]

111. Assuming that you are very interested in race issues,

and that each race that is discriminated against is a minority, isn't it wise for all minorities including racial minorities to seek allies among members of the majority?

To build a coalition it seems to me it is wise to find issues that include people who may not prioritize the issues the way that I would. As a woman, I want to build a coalition with minorities who suffer from gender discrimination in the workplace. I want to build a coalition with LGBTs who suffer from discrimination based on their gender identification.

How can we build a coalition? By finding issues that are of common interest to us. In my view, the most obvious issue that is common to people of color (in my area that is more Hispanics than African-Americans and so I use the term, people of color), to LGBTs, to women and to other groups that suffer discrimination and might I add, older workers 40+, regardless of gender, race, etc. is JOB DISCRIMINATION, a very economic issue.

So to build a coalition, we need to focus on economic issues. And that should not detract from our support for civil rights issues, especially racial, gender, religious, gender, etc. equality.

I think we should focus on economic issues in order to bring people together and build a coalition. But we must also focus on group identity issues and make sure we include those issues in building a coalition on economic issues.

There is one problem with say focusing on women's issues and that is that too often we are saying to men "You cannot know our pain. You cannot know our loss. We have been discriminated against for thousands of years. . . .. etc." and thus exclude men from our fight. We need to include precisely those among those whom we perceive as our oppressors in our efforts to fight for civil rights. We exclude people who need to change, and when we do that, we actually impede a dialogue and make it more difficult for them to understand, to empathize and to change.

Whereas with economic issues, we all share the insecurities and problems so that is a good place to start to build a coalition.