Firstly, I am white so I really want to do my best to not be a shithead when discussing this topic. I was in a conversation with a classmate who has Iranian family regarding the question of reform and revolution.

She pointed to general points about harm reduction and improving conditions now, while I attempted to make the case that revolution is the only way to bring true equality and protection and that the push for liberal reforms must be coincided by militant communist action (dual power ect). I was fairly cautious about my handling of my knowledge of race issues I believe, and I mostly reiterated what I understand as written by black and 3rd world communists: the US (and capitalism) is the direct cause of the issues facing the rest of the world and there are no practical circumstances in which one would be safe from the west without the dissolution of capitalism.

Also in discussions regarding white "communists" (mostly in reference to youtubers and people like that, she brought it up) I asserted that putting effort into the education, agitation, and organization of white people is a mostly lost cause in america, and that the majority of effort should go towards the organization of people of color. I cited this with reference to the BPP's work with rural americans and their firm belief that the black minority power structure must be built first and that the support of white people is secondary.

What would be the best way to go about this in the future. How can I make the case for revolution, as a white person, to a poc? How could I communicate the communist message more clearly?

  • Windows97 [any, any]
    ·
    3 years ago

    If you're talking about whiteness as an idea or a culture then I misunderstood my bad

    • silent_water [she/her]
      ·
      3 years ago

      my dude, whiteness isn't about skin color. it's a social relation just as much as class is. it's constructed and changes with time and place. if you go back one thousand years and start talking about the common whiteness of all europeans, people are going to look at you like an insane person because you're talking about a diverse group of people who fucking hate each other. it's only their shared economic, cultural, societal relationships over the past thousand years that has constructed any unitary identity that can be called whiteness today. and who is considered white or not white changes over time - ask the italians, the irish, the hispanic, etc.. in the US, various groups are white in some contexts and not in others. whiteness is weird. whiteness is fake. whiteness is no more real than bourgeois identity and it's just as easily cast aside in recognition of shared proletarian struggle. essentialization and self-flagellization over skin color instead of just like not being shit a person, learning how your privilege colors your perspective and correcting for it, and reading and learning from people different from yourself is just another kind of racism wrapped in a woke shell of woe-is-me doomerism. fuck that.

      • Windows97 [any, any]
        ·
        3 years ago

        self-flagellization over skin color instead of just like not being shit a person, learning how your privilege colors your perspective and correcting for it, and reading and learning from people different from yourself is just another kind of racism wrapped in a woke shell of woe-is-me doomerism

        yeah that's basically what I was trying to say I just don't think I understood or got that across right

        • silent_water [she/her]
          ·
          3 years ago

          ahh got it, thought you were saying whiteness was something real to worry about.