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LWolf

(46,179 posts)
4. This confuses me.
Thu Jun 30, 2016, 03:28 PM
Jun 2016

But then, I'm white, so I have, passively or actively, benefited from white privilege. I freely acknowledge that.

I come from working poor people. I'm the first person on any side of my family to attend college. I am female. I know what it is to be poor, I know what it is to struggle to survive from week to week, and I know what it is to be treated as a lesser person, in the form of sexism, in the world and in the workplace. That's not the same as racism, but I have still experienced discrimination, and have fought against discrimination in my lifetime.

I have not excluded workers of color from participation in working class political movements; but then, I'm not sure when there has BEEN a vibrant working class political movement since I came of age.

I have been aware of racial justice issues, and the need to support achievement on that front, since my pre-teen years; my single working mom made sure I was aware.

I don't think I've "sided with the wealthiest Americans against the interests of both people of color as well as the common people more broadly," but then, I'm not sure what you are referring to here.

I freely admit that I have not been on the front lines, and therefore don't have enough information to form an opinion. That's not a function of disinterest or disinclination; it's a function of time, place, and struggle to get by right where I am.

I freely admit that I tend to be outside cultural and social norms, and therefore don't relate to conventional wisdom from any side.

I do think that economic justice and racial justice are interconnected to some degree. I don't think separating them helps either of those causes, and I do think that working on them together benefits both. I also know that the growing socio-economic inequalities aren't helping anyone...but those at the top.

I don't know who accused whom of sowing division, but I recognize the division itself. I freely admit that I don't understand some of it.

But then, I don't understand why people do most of what they do, and often when I do understand, I disagree.

That's where my house is.

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