"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.

  • star_wraith [he/him]
    ·
    3 years ago

    While I'm not very familiar with Buffalo or India Walton, I do think racism has a part (certainly when we add Virginia and Minneapolis into the discussion). Obviously not because Walton is black - so was her opponent. But racism 100% drives white peoples' worship of the cops and "law and order". They want their white enclaves "protected" from black and brown people. In their minds, the cops are the only thing that keeps all those "dangerous" people away. So anyone advocating a more just approach threatens white supremacy.

    • ChairmanBao [he/him]
      ·
      3 years ago

      there are other people besides whites who work forces and support police. Loving the police is more about property rights nowadays. Walton ran on supporting the police as workers and still lost. She lost because she waffled with her union support while trying to appeal to conservatives on issues like law enforcement. Conservatives voted for her black opponent because class trumps race, theyd rather vote for a black guy than what the media is telling them is a real deal commie.

        • ChairmanBao [he/him]
          ·
          3 years ago

          its certainly shifted that way since it became less acceptable to lynch minorities

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

            its certainly shifted that way since it became less acceptable to lynch minorities

            ”less” is doing a lot of work in that sentence. Heck, it’s practically an olympic power-lifter.

            Here is a list of 229 black people publicly executed by police between the murder of Eric Garner and May of this year:

            https://www.newsweek.com/full-list-229-black-people-killed-police-since-george-floyds-murder-1594477

            Tell me those are not “socially acceptable” lynchings. Most of those pigs walk free and faced no consequences.

            “Property rights” is a justification and a dog whistle. Chauvin was a sacrifice to get the libs to go back to brunch.