I write four days after a teenage white supremacist drove hundreds of miles to shoot and kill, with an assault rifle, 10 black people at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York. The “great replacement” theory that Democrats such as President Biden are encouraging immigrants and other dark-skin folks to flock to the US propelled the young shooter to commit mass murder.
Allow me to begin thusly. There is one race of people on planet Earth. It is the human race, and we are all members, like it or not.
Racial categories of Black, Brown, White and Yellow are social creations. The four aforementioned races are biologically the same, while culturally and ethnically different. This is no academic debating point, in my view.
Lacking a biological basis, however, race as a social construct delivers powerful outcomes. Look no further than, say, the labor market. Consider this.
The Black unemployment rate is twice that of White workers. This difference holds throughout the business cycle. That is to say during expansions and recessions, Black folks experience double the unemployment rate of Whites. As some say, look at the numbers.
During the past four decades of class warfare in America under Democrats and Republicans, both parties have privileged the interests of corporations and the wealthy over the working class. Capital can roam the globe seeking return on investment, e.g., misnamed free trade, and working families follow that flight path. In a system of economics and politics, that favors capital over labor of people regardless of skin shades, an ownership class gaining larger slices of the income and wealth pie has billions of reasons to foster social division.
We turn to Big Tech and Fox News. Online social media platforms such as Twitch that Amazon owns and Rupert Murdoch’s media empire amplify the message of the “great replacement” theory, whereby whites lose status to nonwhites. This is a profitable venture for the oligarchs whose business model spews such hateful rhetoric.
As I see it, the amplification of the “great replacement” theory is a reaction in part to the George Floyd protests of 2020. That was a multiracial movement against his police killing in Minneapolis, Minn., seen around the world. There has never been such a public protest in US history in terms of the number of Americans who coalesced to protest together.
Movement politics can and has pushed US politicians and policymakers to enact reform measures. Think of the reforms of the 1930s, such as Social Security. Consider the enactment of Medicare in the 1960s. In each of these decades, multiracial movement politics thrived and delivered victories to millions of people.
The rise and demise of movements in the 1930s and 1960s show us what is at stake and why it matters. I know, today is a different time. We live in a digital world of instant communication plus a climate devastation. There is so much information to digest and grasp.
One thing, however, is clear to me. Human unity is the key to advancing progressive politics and policy amid the chaos of the present, of which the “great replacement” theory is a morbid symptom. Disunity is the enemy.
Seth Sandronsky lives and works in Sacramento. He is a journalist and member of the Pacific Media Workers Guild. Email sethsandronsky@gmail.com.
From The Progressive Populist, June 15, 2022
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