Though the civil rights movement was focused on advancing equality for Black people, they did so through an inclusive message that sought to uplift all marginalized groups, including poor white people. The March on Washington was called the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom for a reason.
Civil rights organizers knew the way to tackle systemic racial inequality in this country was through advancing economic justice for everyone. This is how to build a broad enough coalition to pass meaningful change as they did. They understood that economic domination girded racial domination.
The modern “woke” movement, on the other hand, seeks to address racial disparities at the individual level rather than the societal level. They say: If we can just get enough white people to acknowledge their “white fragility”, then that will advance racial equality. This sort of individual moralizing does not work, and civil rights leaders like Bayard Rustin stood in direct opposition to this sort of outlook.
Wokeism has done very little to dismantle racial inequities in this country, and it seems to have meaningfully contributed to putting Trump back in the WH. As a political movement, it has failed to produce its desired outcome.
All of super’s points about solidarity in this country are correct. My historical area of study is antebellum American history, so I’m quite aware of this. Very few serious leftists think that the work of creating cross-race solidarity is easy anywhere, let alone in this country.
But, what do you think is more effective in building a cross-race working class coalition in this country: telling white people that they are innately racist because they’re white or convincing poor and working white people that their economic advancement is innately linked to that of poor and working minorities?
