Current Events > Do American socialists have a race problem?

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://newrepublic.com/article/152789/americas-socialists-race-problem

On an afternoon in July, nearly 200 people packed into the ballroom of a local community center in northern Oakland for a general meeting of the East Bay chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). As they settled into folded chairs on the rooms faded wooden floors, the group ran through the weeks agenda, which included votes on the establishment of a code of conduct, a resolution to meet monthly instead of once every two months, and a proposal to support Cat Brooks, a black activist running for Oakland mayor.

Three miles away at the Marriott City Center, Brooks was working events at the California Democratic Caucus. Brooks, a co-founder of the Anti-Police Terror Project, which provides support to communities of color in response to police violence, had been invited to speak on a panel defending Prop 10, a ballot measure that sought to repeal a 1995 law restricting rent control in Oakland and other cities in California. At the end of the event, Brooks checked her phone and found a stream of texts from people at the DSA meeting. The messages read: You need to get here right now.

Minutes later, Brooks stormed into the ballroom. A proposal to prioritize two other endorsementsfor Prop 10 and a candidate for Californias state assemblyhad snowballed into a referendum on Brooks herself, with critics saying she was too compromised to receive the DSAs backing. The groups support shouldnt be given to people who are a dime a dozen, Brooks remembered one man saying. Like many of her rivals, she had pledged to expand affordable housing and reduce Oaklands growing homeless population. Notably, she had insisted on cutting the citys police budget in half.

At one point, Tur-ha Ak, a black organizer with Brookss Anti-Police Terror Project, asked to speak. As his turn approached, the young man who was chairing the meeting asked if Ak was a member. A number of white people had spoken before him, including Forrest Schmidt, 42, who was attending his first DSA meeting. None of us had our credentials called, he said. Nobody said, Are you a DSA member? When Ak responded that he was not a member, the chair asked him to take a seat.

The room erupted. The procedural rules were racist, Ak proclaimed, raising his voice over a cacophony of protests and chants. The energy, Brooks recalled, turned into that of a white mob. She decided to take the floor. My name is Cat Brooks, she said. Ive been organizing in this city longer than most of you have lived here. In a brief, piercing speech, she accused the largely white crowd of being gentrifiers and then walked out, leaving members confused and outraged.

The debate quickly moved to Twitter, Reddit, and other corners of the internet. In an online essay, Jeremy Gong, an East Bay member who sits on DSAs National Political Committee, the organizations highest decision-making body, argued that Cat Brooks weaponized her race to coerce DSA into supporting her candidacy. He would not endorse her. The July DSA meeting, he wrote, was a textbook example of race reductionism and liberal guilt politics. By insinuating that white members were the problem when it came to Oaklands gentrification, he claimed, Brooks had mistakenly reduced what was fundamentally a class conflict into a racial one
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Though a dustup among a small group of lefties in Oakland may seem to be a parochial affair, the controversy surrounding Brooks is part of a fierce debate about race within the newly invigorated socialist movement. Since 2016, when it had only 6,500 members, DSA has added nearly 50,000 members and over 125 chapters across the country. In 2018, two of its membersAlexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rashida Tlaib, both women of colorwere elected to serve in Congress, and 21 more won seats in state legislatures. Though DSA is separate from the Democratic Party, some of its members represent both institutions, while DSA itself is at the cutting edge of the broader progressive movement, a loud, insistent voice on issues ranging from universal health care to debt forgiveness.

But unlike other progressive groups, DSA has to contend with internal factions that are very seriously wedded to a certain strain of socialist ideologyone that emphasizes, as Karl Marx did, a churning class war that governs the history of humankind. For these socialists, an anti-capitalist movement must be anti-racist, since capitalism has been instrumental in the subjugation of minorities. But they are also weary of liberal politicians who, they say, exploit race to pander to minority groups, all while skirting the deeper class conflict at work. In the past year, these hard-liners have clashed on numerous occasions with other socialists, often minorities themselves, who contend that righting Americas unique wrongs requires an approach distinct from the universal precepts of historical materialismone that emphasizes racisms special impact on inequality, supra-class.

In the Brooks controversy and other incidents, these tensions have come to a head, badly dividing the movement and raising difficult questions about socialisms potential as a political force in the United States. In important respects, these are the same questions that dogged socialism as an ideology throughout the 20th centuryquestions that Americas fledgling socialists are openly struggling to answer, on Twitter and in left-wing periodicals like Jacobin. Is socialism, as an ideology, capable of welcoming dissenting opinions? And how central should issues of race be in a socialist movement?
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BeantownHero posted...

Is socialism, as an ideology, capable of welcoming dissenting opinions?

is this a joke
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Godnorgosh posted...

Socialists have always had a race problem, as have, you know, everyone else. In this case I'm not quite in the Tim Wise camp that claims classism is dependent on racism in a sort of one-way relationship, but obviously racism should be treated much more seriously than just as another topic given lip service from white socialists.

My own position is that racism is rooted in class struggle, but there is a dialectical relationship between the two wherein racism serves to further entrench class distinctions, which in turn further entrench racism, etc.

I'm largely on board with this

identity politics can be useful in the context of marginalized groups protesting together, but it can also lead to massive support for imperialists (e.g. Obama) and billionaires (e.g. Oprah). the exploitative nature of capitalism would not be lessened if it were equalized across race/gender lines. it would also not be lessened if every billionaire was a black trans woman.

anyway, focusing specifically on the "gentrifiers" comment: referring to the room as such is a pretty big faux-pas, and extremely unhelpful. if nothing else, blaming gentrification on a demographic rather than on cops, landlords, politicians, and business owners, is reductive and minimizes the role that those groups play in augmenting prices and creating homelessness
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n a private conversation, one East Bay co-chair insinuated to a member of color organizing the clinic that it would look like white saviorism.

you can't write satire this good
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Racists who pretend to be against racism generally show symptoms of cognitive dissonance
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For these socialists, an anti-capitalist movement must be anti-racist, since capitalism has been instrumental in the subjugation of minorities. But they are also weary of liberal politicians who, they say, exploit race to pander to minority groups, all while skirting the deeper class conflict at work. In the past year, these hard-liners

the bias in this piece is pretty obvious

it's not just democratic socialist hardliners who feel that the democratic party has abandoned labor entirely in favor of minorities and women

it's basically everyone who isn't in the center. i'm more social democrat than democratic socialist, and i certainly feel this way

we support dems mostly out of obligation of preventing something worse, not because we are satisfied.

i dont think its too much to ask that politicians actually do a majority of the things that democratic socialists want in order to secure the endorsement of democratic socialist organizations.
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i have two DSA friends, white upper middle class guys, and they love to preach to me about what is best for black people in cities they've never visited
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East Bay DSA is widely regarded in DSA as a garbage chapter

Intersectionality is one of the core tenants of DSA

and no DSA is not perfect, but that article making out eastbay DSA to being the norm is laughable
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Godnorgosh posted...

I know what you mean by this, but in reality minorities and women are labor, too, so in a sense they have been abandoned as well.

absolutely, however their most visible issues are being addressed by democrats.

the issues they have as part of the labor pool, mostly, are not, but for them, those issues are secondary. that those issues are not being addressed is why DSA et al exist and are not simply democrats...and that they're mostly white men is a natural consequence of the demographics of whose perceived 'primary' issues are being addressed and whose are not.

it is obviously improper for a white person to come into a black person's community and tell him what his primary issue should be, but it is very proper for a white voter to come into a black politician's town hall meeting and tell them what their primary issues should be if they want his support.

this article seems to have an issue with that and i find it silly.
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i mean having talked to numerous socialist POC that isn't considered true

Criminal Justice Reform is at the top of the list in importance, but not for dems for whatever reason
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Paper_Okami posted...

i mean having talked to numerous socialist POC that isn't considered true

Criminal Justice Reform is at the top of the list in importance, but not for dems for whatever reason

dems just got a criminal justice reform bill passed with bipartisan support and signed by trump less than a week ago

it's a good bill

i get that the problems are really bad, but we have made huge steps since the 90s and are actively continuing to make steps

may just be that dems are absolutely shit at announcing their successes
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@Antifar thoughts?
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