The Enduring Solidarity of Whiteness

The Atlantic ^ | February 8, 2016 | Ta-Nehisi Coates

[2ndDivisionVet]

Black poverty is fundamentally distinct from white poverty--and so cannot be addressed without grappling with racism.

There have been a number of useful entries in the weeks since Senator Bernie Sanders declared himself against reparations. Perhaps the most clarifying comes from Cedric Johnson in a piece entitled, "An Open Letter To Ta-Nehisi Coates And The Liberals Who Love Him." Johnson's essay offers those of us interested in the problem of white supremacy and the question of economic class the chance to tease out how, and where, these two problems intersect. In Johnson's rendition, racism, in and of itself, holds limited explanatory power when looking at the socio-economic problems which beset African Americans. "We continue to reach for old modes of analysis in the face of a changed world," writes Johnson. "One where blackness is still derogated but anti-black racism is not the principal determinant of material conditions and economic mobility for many African Americans."

Johnson goes on to classify racism among other varieties of -isms whose primary purpose is "to advance exploitation on terms that are most favorable to investor class interests." From this perspective, the absence of specific anti-racist solutions from Bernie Sanders, as well as his rejection of reparations, make sense. By Johnson's lights, racism is a secondary concern, and to the extent that it is a concern at all, it is weapon deployed to advance the interest of a plutocratic minority....

[2ndDivisionVet]

Comments?

[DuncanWaring]

As soon as I see the author’s name, I know it’s unadulterated bunk.

[FlingWingFlyer]

Ditto. Just another America hater.

[MeganC]

I’m thinking that maybe it’s time for white people to have their own cities, schools, neighborhoods, businesses, and etc. so we don’t offend black people merely by being white.

[Travis McGee]

I guess whites should just commit mass suicide.

But then who will feed and care for the morons?

[ColdOne]

maybe it is time.

[Billthedrill]

Like most Marxian analysis, it’s abstraction-choked and devoid of actual semantic content. I struggled through to the end and didn’t find one testable assertion.

[Organic Panic]

Liberia, Haiti, Sierra Leone, DarC, are all black run black majority nations. If Mr Coates doesn’t want to live in this hopelessly racist country he can move.

[sparklite2]

Sorry, my mind cannot wrap around so many smuggled premises at once.

[trisham]

Coates was born in Baltimore, Maryland, to father William Paul “Paul” Coates,[6] a Vietnam War veteran, former Black Panther, publisher and librarian, and mother Cheryl Waters, who was a teacher.[7] Coates’ father founded and ran Black Classic Press, a publisher specializing in African-American titles. The Press grew out of a grassroots organization, The George Jackson Prison Movement. Initially the GJPM operated a Black book store called the Black Book. Later Black Classic Press was established with a table top printing press in the basement of the Coates family home.[1][8] Coates’ father had seven children, five boys and two girls, by four women. Coates’ father’s first wife had three children, Coates’ mother had two boys, and the other two women each had a child. The children were raised together in a close-knit family; most lived with their mothers and at times lived with their father. Coates said he lived with his father the whole time.[1][9] In Coates’ family, Coates said that the important overarching focus was on rearing children with values based on family, respect for elders and being a contribution to your community. This approach to family was not uncommon in the community where he grew up.[1] Coates grew up in the Mondawmin neighborhood of Baltimore[9] during the crack epidemic.[1]

Source: Wikipedia

[amnestynone]

White privilege does exist. It is also known as social ad cultural evolution. A few thousand years of learning the lessons that make up a modern successful, prosperous and advanced culture and learned and imprinted into the culture. The only logical basis for this drivel is to empower the unempowered. But, that is actually the counter productive. You do not empower by making someone a victim and building a victims consciousness. He empowers himself by learning the lessons the same as our forebears learned them and passing them on. there are no short cuts.

[Bubba_Leroy]

In 2008, 96% of blacks voted for Obama and 55% of whites voted for McCain.

To liberals, this is proof that 55% of whites are racist and 4% of blacks are Uncle Toms.

[gogeo]

This should come with a shovel.

[MeganC]

See, racism is okay when a liberal does it.

[Ouderkirk]

Until Mr. Coates is prepared to address this:

and it is obvious that Mr. Coates resides on the median of 81....nowhere near 100

[Robert A Cook PE]

Good summary. It is why liberal degrees in double-talk and esoteric “lulubuys” purchased from academia by writing drivel with no content are worthless in the real world, but are essential for hiring and promotion by their government masters.

[umgud]

I live in a lily white neighborhood where everybody pays gobs of taxes of all types. There is no crime here even though we never see a cop. Guns are over-represented here, schools are clean and productive. I could go on, but won’t.

[ColdOne]

it seems so. yet they seem to want their own spaces. give it to them. water fountains etc.

[BenLurkin]

ajntsa

[kearnyirish2]

Even they are seeking “reparations”; Haiti wants them from France after 200+ years of independence - because the French demanded payment in lieu of retaking the island. As I understood it, Obama’s “climate change” conference was to transfer wealth from “white” countries to darker ones where people never bothered to re-plant trees used for firewood and depleted other resources as well.