"Read Settlers" is a meme, but it's also a true meme. You should read it, or read other things about this thesis regarding the white working class in the US (I've heard other Marxists have since improved on Sakai's thesis but I don't know who they are).

White Americans are doubling down on the racism. As white settler colonialism is starting to face just a little bit of opposition (like teaching kids that maybe the US isn't a perfect, God-blessed country), they are losing their minds over the idea of losing even a tiny bit of their privileges. This is still a perfectly material explanation. White folks have enjoyed an incredible level of privilege since the beginning of this country and they will fight viciously to keep all of it.

IMO the bulk of white Americans are a lost cause. Not to say white folks can't be revolutionary (I'm white), but I think we probably should be spending our very limited time and resources on folks outside the imperial core break from western imperialism, and focus on the oppressed within the core. Any white Americans who want to join in are welcome but any concession to white supremacy is unacceptable.

Edit: to clarify, I'm not saying the Dems lost because racism or whatever. I don't care if the Dems win or lose, it doesn't matter. My point is much more about using electoral results and the campaigns that precede them to see where winds are blowing. It seems that "CRT" and fear-mongering about crime (and thus the need to fund even more cops) was a very effective message in appealing to large segments of the population - particularly the white population.

  • EmmaGoldman [she/her, comrade/them]M
    ·
    3 years ago

    I may not be a guy, but there are zero photos of me in existence. The only images of me are X-rays from childhood because I'm that cool and fragile.

    I should publish more theory.

    • ChairmanBao [he/him]
      ·
      3 years ago

      maybe if you publish some theory someone will take a photo of you

      • EmmaGoldman [she/her, comrade/them]M
        ·
        3 years ago

        I have actually published a few things. Just nothing I wanna post here lmao, I'll get my ass dragged over my cringe ass Ph. D. thesis. Also the lack of photos is very deliberate.

        • ChairmanBao [he/him]
          ·
          3 years ago

          Same actually. I hope you get photos one day tho, when we dont have to live in fear of the chuds. I hope J. Sakai gets a photo too after they take his mugshot from beating me to death with my own keyboard cuz that would really make my day. I would get murdered by legendary theorist J. Sakai.

          • Brak [they/them, e/em/eir]
            ·
            3 years ago

            I hope J. Sakai gets a photo too after they take his mugshot from beating me to death

            :wut:

            mrw someone fantasizes about POC being enslaved by the carceral state.

              • Brak [they/them, e/em/eir]
                ·
                3 years ago

                Sunmary, but it’s more than this: From the moment the first settlers landed in Amerika, they constructed a system of enslavement built on a European definition of race. Many of the first slaves were the indigenous people of the continent.

                This system of exploitation and “cheap” labor was the foundation that the white class system was built on. Amerikan capitalism (really all capitalism) is dependent on forms of slavery. Even a poor/ working class white person participates in and benefits from the exploitation of minorities.

                Sakai argues that the true proletariat of Amerika are these minorities. Their labor is exploited and used to fund economic benefits for the white ruling class. The New Deal, for instance, was largely racially segregated.

                It is not impossible to be an ally, but it is very much like how a wealthy person can become a class traitor. It is not in their material interest and because of this it will be pretty rare. Liberation from capitalism is most likely to come from and be lead by the workers exploited by racial apartheid.

                Unsurprisingly, this theory/concept greatly upset the white man for a similar reason someone born into wealth instinctually rejects class analysis. “I worked hard”, “I’m not racist”, etc. That betrays a liberal outlook of individualism instead of a systemic understanding.

                Sakai doesn’t pull any punches. He uses clear, loaded language and his writing should be loaded. Amerika is unjust and evil. There are clains he’s a fed and “dividing workers”. To me that reeks of white cope and gosh damn is it ever stinky.

                The closest Amerika came to socialism was moderate social democracy with FDR and even then it was still dependent on apartheid. You cannot make any real progress on a socialist project in Amerika without accepting this, otherwise you will just be trying to build a socialist state on top of that actual proletariat.

                Someone please correct me if I missed a spot, I’m responding based off memory and still chugging coffee. I tried to use as little jargon as possible.