From this black person(I can’t believe I even have to say this before I’m shot down) I am genuinely angry at the manner in which black people are shutting down honest inquiries into the reasons behind the solid support for the Clintons.
Sure, some of the questions may be framed in a problematic manner. But all I’m seeing is “condescending!”, “talking down to us!”, “we owe nobody an explanation!” subtle implications of racism etc etc. No, genuinely curiously minds would like to understand and not be tarred.
Even inquiries into what the Sanders campaign could have done/ can do to connect better and impact the vote are treated with “artful smears”(sorry, had to get that one in there) and non-answers in general.
I also see a lot of assumptions about the uniformity of the black experience . Many of the black commenters I assume are either middle class/upper middle class. Their world view/politics is influenced by their class. You can’t get away from that and it should be acknowledged by those who seem to think that their class interests can be used to generalize about the interests of black people in general.
This is particularly pertinent in the comments that I’ve seen disparaging leftwing (economic) politics as a “white liberal” thing. Umm, just no. You must be pretty comfortable in life/not concerned about your community to think that a $15 min wage, Medicare for all, jobs program etc would not be huge and are just a “white liberal thing” .
Just as a reminder, these are the sorts of demands that were enshrined in the Black Panther 10-point program:
Take this sample #2:
“
We Want Full Employment For Our People.
We believe that the federal government is responsible and obligated to give every man employment or a guaranteed income. We believe that if the White American businessmen will not give full employment, then the means of production should be taken from the businessmen and placed in the community so that the people of the community can organize and employ all of its people and give a high standard of living.
“
I’m quoting this segment to underline how the Black Panther party understood that a left-wing economic program (gasp! even, socialist) was needed to advance the interests of people of color. I’m mentioning this to answer a common critique that Sanders thinks everything is reducible to economics. This is so obviously absurd if you actually listen to what the man says. But these critiques also seem to imply that the material concerns are not so important compared to other issues e.g. police violence. Again, check your class privilege.
I’m also highly critical of those whose idea of taking on racial injustice begins and ends with a call to a vague notion of reparations. I’m not disputing the merits of such a program, but I can’t take you seriously if you’re not also solidly advocating a social democratic platform which has the ability to unite large segments of the population and directly improve the living standards of huge numbers of people. Sorry, not sorry.
It’s clear that some of those who have been commenting see no great need for a social democratic program, which is fine. But those who actually care about advancing left politics, instead of taking up all the oxygen shutting down questions, should be talking about strategies to make the Sanders campaign more competitive or at minimum to build support for such a movement in the future.
My two cents. Didn’t expect to go on such tangents but whatever.