This primary solidified the Log-Cabinization of the Social Left
reposted here by request:
Log Cabin Republicans have always been funny things to me. They're gay, but other than that, they never care much for the gay community. They can be counted upon for marriage equality arguments and anti-discrimination measures, but otherwise, you're all on your own. Given their demographic - generally white, male, and affluent - it's understandable. They're looking after their personal interests. They're looking after their money. But they want the best of both worlds. They want their money, and they want their identity.
Now, if you're an LGBTer on the ground, you know the problem with their attitude. It isn't as simple as just being gay or lesbian. There are a lot of factors. What is known as intersectionality. LGBTers of color are vastly more likely to suffer from economic disadvantage. Our trans brothers and sisters doubly so. A white, affluent gay male doesn't experience the same world as a poor, black lesbian. I, as a white gay man, can move relatively confidently through society, while a Latina trans sister is always in fear of assault or even death.
So, we're all connected. If you're a liberal of conscience, you understand that. There's no "Gay Issue". It's a variety of issues, where orientation is the core of a nimbus that billows out into every fact of life.
And yet. In this primary. All the work we've done to be united seems to be coming apart at every angle.
What set me off was "Brocialism". And the idea behind it that economic justice is merely a complaint of the white working class.
First, let me say, how much crack have you been smoking, and when did you first take up the pipe?
Economic injustice is not only a problem afflicting white male Millennials. Which part of anywhere in the USA would you like me to point to to bear this out? I live around Oakland, I'm a social worker, so I will share my general experience.
San Francisco is outrageous with housing prices. Tech companies moved in with their high salaries, rents skyrocketed, and everyone who couldn't pay started leaping out of the city like it was a Titanic re-enactment. East Bay, Oakland, and Berkeley were immune for awhile. Oakland, especially, is a city of color, and yet it's getting thumbed down, piece. by. piece. "Oh hey, we live near Lake Merritt. It's fine. Oh, shit, our rent is now $3,000. But, meh, it's fine, let's go to Temescal. Oh shit, no one can afford to live here! My roommate works for Pandora! Well, whatever. No one wants to live in West Oakland. It's a crime-ridden nightmare, and who could possibly . . . why are there hipsters on my street, and what the fuck is a brewery?"
And so all the poor people of color get shoved and shoved and shoved. Right now, they're going north. To Vallejo. To Santa Rosa. But make no mistake, they're being shoved out. Berkeley is the same. When I moved here in 2009, the neighborhood around 4th Street was a poorer neighborhood with people of color. There's an Apple Store there today. And lots of affluent white techies. They just plowed down my favorite family-owned Indian buffet so they could build luxury apartments with fancy names like "The Aquatic". The entire Indian-American strip along University Ave. is to be "repurposed". How long will they last? Probably not as long as all the 20, 30, 40 year old ethnic businesses along Shattuck that are suddenly retiring at their landlords' suggestion.
But economic injustice does not concern people of color. It is the cry of young white men. Bros.
This rambling aside isn't rambling. It's an illustration. Economic injustice has far reaching effects. It not only displaces communities of color, it creates an institutionalized system against them. When affluent people move into an area, they don't want to see the homeless. They don't want to see the poor. And so they agitate law enforcement. "Clean this shit up!" they cry. And guess who suffers? The people who have always been there.
I saw a story just the other day about the number of 911 calls in Oakland skyrocketing. What changed? The number of wealthier people who moved in. That is all that changed. They saw people who didn't "seem right" and "didn't fit with the neighborhood" and they called the cops.
To say economic injustice as a call to arms is merely some disaffected white guys is the dumbest. fucking. thing. I've ever actually heard.
This far in, you might ask how I brought up LCR's. Well, here's why.
The Social Left has become severely self-interested. What is my cause. That's the only cause that matters. Is feminism your thing? Then you may find all things anti-Hillary sexist. Forget she's a hawk (wars disproportionately affect women and children), and forget she's a corporatist (economic downturns disproportionately affect women and children), she's a woman! And we want her! And that's all that matters. It's a middle-class sensibility, brought to you by the same people who think we need New York Times articles on why offices are a mite too cold and why the Black Widow doesn't have a good movie yet. First world feminist problems. If you're a comfortable person, you get to engage in stupid, meaningless bullshit. And so, voila!
Same with Black Lives Matter. Now, I love Black Lives Matter. What's happening in our criminal justice system is the most bizarre inversion of justice a body can possibly imagine. We're living in an age of a stealth Jim Crow. But what matters is the celebrity case of the week. And not even well chosen half the time. Has anyone looked at Baltimore? That shit is disintegrating before everyone's very eyes because the prosecutor and DA thought politics were better than making an actual case. You want to know about black lives? Explain to a mother of six how she feeds her kids. Because those lives matter, too. They're just not very media friendly. Ever sit down with someone and work out food stamps for a month and how to not starve? I have. I do. Those lives matter, too.
But they're never talked about. No one cares.
In this primary season, economic injustice became "That White Male Thing!"
Do you know how easy you must have it to be able to sit back and with a straight face say such a thing?
Like the LCRs, the only people who could shit on Bernie Sander's message are people who are comfortable, people who don't actually deal with too many problems, people who think of the ideas of poverty and race as message board exercises rather than lived experiences. People who can pick their bugaboo and go to town about it, because intersectionality is just a whispered hypocrisy on the wind.
Brocialism? Fuck you. How dare you people shit on the poor in that way. And all to merely prop up your celebrity politician crush of the moment.
You've failed. You've failed yourself, and you've failed those you ostensibly claim to champion.
Stop failing.
Hillary's our candidate. Great. Now disen-fucking-gage and go back to actually caring about the problems of the actual disadvantaged. If all you care about is your pet issue, you're just another LCR, and I really don't understand why on earth you're in our party.
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