General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: They Dared Me to Post This... [View all]cui bono
(19,926 posts)But that they are intertwined.
People can fight for both. What's wrong with that? There seems to be a movement on DU that is attempting to separate out the two and make the claim that social is more important than economic. I don't believe anyone from an oppressed group living in poverty will think that. I think they will believe they are both important as they are suffering from both injustices. When you don't have enough money to put food on your table I think that becomes one of your priorities.
Of course getting rich will not change the fact that racism/sexism/homophobia exist. They are systemic, it will take a lot to make them go away. That much is obvious since we are still fighting the same battles centuries after they began and decades after they were supposedly legislated away.
By the same token, being socially equal will not change the fact that big corporations run this country. It will not bring jobs back to the US, it will not rein in the bankers. It will not eliminate greed. It will not eliminate corporate welfare. Legislation has to do that. And so we have to fight for economic justice alongside social justice.
I'm glad that you are doing well financially. A lot of people are not. And I'll be damned if I'm going to give up the fight for all the poor people in this country and the fight to keep the American dream alive so that people don't have to work more than one job to feed their families.
Everybody wants to have enough money to be comfortable at the very least. I get that. And I'm willing to push for a higher minimum wage, and pay equity. Those are clearly issues that people of different races can agree on, depending on their political views. But it is laughable and educational that on a website for liberal Democrats there are people who downplay racial injustice. Especially educational. It is no wonder the Republican party thinks that they can win us over. Liberal Democrats cannot be counted on to champion the cause of racial injustice.
So there it is. You are living well financially and so you care less about what does not affect you personally. You are part of the 1% and we are now supposed to fight your fight only? You are "willing" to push for "higher minimum wage, and pay equity"? That's not very much of a fight, tbh. There is so much more that needs to be fought for economically, like getting rid of free trade deals, regulating Wall Street, getting rid of tax loop holes for the 1% and big corporations, getting rid of subsidies for big oil when they are making $25bn/year in profits. If we fixed all of that we would be able to put the money into education and infrastructure of all of our communities. That in turn could help with the social justice.
I'm not just "willing" to fight for a few areas of social justice, I do it enthusiastically and believe it should be across the board, not just one or two smaller things akin to "higher minimum wage, and pay equity" on the economic front.
When you state that "Addressing economic injustice does not help black people who are part of the 1%." and then end with "Liberal Democrats cannot be counted on to champion the cause of racial injustice.", you seem to be making it clear that you are not liberal and you are centrist. Presumably socially progressive and economically conservative. And you make a statement about liberal Dems which is completely offbase. You base it on DU posts for one, and call DU a site for liberal Democrats, which it is not. It is for Democrats, not just liberal Dems. Yes there are people who don't understand what White Privilege is who post on here, but then those are not liberal Dems. Liberal Dems are liberal on both social and economic matters.
Do you not see that your statements are just the flip side of the coin? You are basically saying you got yours economically, so meh, not that important for others to get theirs. At least not as important as you getting the rest of yours. What about all the people who literally don't have enough money to put food on their table? Who die because they can't afford to have heat or air conditioning? Statistics show that more PoC live in poverty than Whites. Doesn't throw a wrench in your argument?
Everyone is going to look at life through their own experiences. But I really think that bringing up Oprah's incident as an example is coming off as completely tone deaf to people's fight for survival. Like I said, you are the flip side of the coin.
I'm not saying that social justice doesn't matter, just that economic justice matters just as much. To some one will matter more than the other depending on their individual circumstance so how about we fight for both together and stop trying to make this a divisive issue.