I'm damn tired of people who claim to be the left

[BainsBane]

447. How odd your reaction to any discussion of equal rights

Is to assume, quite angrily, that it means abandoning "economic justice" for white people. Most thoughtful people understand there is no economic justice without civil right because the absence of legal and civil equality means increased poverty for the subaltern. Assuming that a commitment to civil rights means a lack of concern for jobs is not about "economic justice" but rather a commitment to increased wealth for the few at the expense of poverty for the majority. That is as far removed from "justice" as it gets.


So yeah, I get that some white people are outraged the Democratic Party concerns itself with matters of equality rather than focusing exclusively on ensuring the white bourgeoisie regains its position atop the world capitalist order. That is after all part of what led to Trump's election. To claim that has anything to do with "economic justice" is disingenuous. No one who cares about equality or justice sees a commitment to civil rights as threatening.

Similarly, "neoliberalism" has become a slogan for those not even remotely concerned about global inequality and who offer no critique of capitalism. A relentless focus on the economic standing of one race/class--the white bourgeoisie-- in one country in the world has nothing to do with justice or equality. It's a form of nationalism in which people appropriate the language of socialism to restore the kind of global inequality wrought by empire that benefited them at the expense of the many.