Do the rich really love anti-racism, though? Or was it more so that the rich tried and (to an extent) succeeded to co-opt the BLM movement circa 2020, and are now disregarding many aspects of anti-racism because it no longer works for their interests? I’m seeing universities around the country cracking down on their DEI programs and ethnic studies/decolonial professors because those people are starting to threaten power in a legitimate way, chiefly through being sympathetic towards the pro-Palestine movement and supporting students against Trump. At my former university, the DEI director donated money for tents. I’m seeing intellectuals who were heralded by the Democratic Party and made famous for their antiracism work, like Ta-Nehisi Coates, coming out with very sharp criticisms of their war on Gaza. I’m seeing a lot of young progressive people participate in labor/anti-war actions and other forms of organizing because they were introduced to ideas of left-wing academics through BLM. At a Starbucks Workers United meeting I attended, several younger organizers said their first exposure to labor activism came through the language of Black liberation and anti-racism they encountered on TikTok in 2020. The very surface level and often corporate ideas of antiracism promoted by Democrats are weak and incapable of challenging power by themselves, but they do often serve as a pipeline for progressives to come and join the real left. From my perspective, a Democratic Party that at least pays lip service to race, identity, and inclusion is more fertile ground for organizing and pressure than one that erases those issues entirely. Sure, there will always be some upper-middle-class white liberal women who benefit disproportionately, and useless HR trainings, but that doesn’t mean we should be against it. We don’t know how members of the ruling class actually feel about the long-term effects of their donations to BLM, if that was a mistake to them or not.
I don’t think I fully agree with your piece either. The DSA and Jacobin writers who seem sick and tired of race reductionism got to that point after being in left organizations that put identity center stage, being around organizers who used identity as a cudgel to bash others who disagree with their views and create excessively hostile environments. There’s a reason BLM was co-opt-able before it was co-opted, which really goes unanswered in the anti-class reductionist pieces also coming out of magazines like Jaocbin and your own.
No, you don’t respond to many salient criticisms, I just read your piece an hour ago. You don’t even understand the purpose of criticizing works by race reductionist liberal Black scholars like Ibrahm X Kendi because Donald Trump banned his books in schools, as if thats at all relevant to actions and ideologies of people within left wing organizations. Your piece, while based on your organizing experience, makes quite a few broad sweeping judgements of various movements, of other organizers and organizations, etc which one can agree or disagree with based on their own “actual experience in organizations and actual time reading history.”
" Black graveness is a multi-billon dollar industry, BlackLivesMatter the organization have rank in billions during the wave of “peaceful” protests during 2020AD, even though the black homicide rate actually increase. That’s the thing, all that grifting from black graveness seem to have little positive impact on the Hamburgerian populace itself. #BlackLivesMatter’s stance on de-policing seem to have only the increase the killing and inter-killing of black folk, and soft on crime have only led to black own businesses being closed because of the cost of retail theft, the monopolization of companies like Amazon, and the increase of food deserts."
Antiracism "soundly rejects notions of biological racial difference" -- at it's best yes but some of it shades into some pretty disturbing race essentialism...that for me was the off-ramp, before I even understood (from watching your Jacobin show!) the counter-solidaristic aspect.
I remember being part of a formal DEI campaign at my former workplace. Curiously I remember an Asian guy in the chat asking if it was okay to call a mixed-sex group “guys”, as in “hey guys”, and him just being rolled-over by the presenters. That workplace also struggled with being racially and economically diverse, that is, it remained an enclave of highly-skilled, privileged professionals, recruited from elite schools, and dedicated to serving an increasingly small client base of petroleum and mining interests. Not much room for taking on or facilitating the careers of traditionally disadvantaged people.
It seems to me that without concrete social action, DEI is just a kind of coded language that allows elites to perpetuate their own status - hence the Asian guy being railroaded by supposed DEI facilitators. This was made worse by the fact that the presenters were focusing mostly on American issues in spite of it being a Canadian company. We talked about Black Lives Matter, but nothing about the more pernicious problem of racism towards First Nations in Canada.
I totally forgot I pre-ordered this back in February, what a fun surprise to get it today! Excited to read it. Will you be doing a book tour or anything (hopefully in Boston)?
Do you think you’re going to make an iota of difference with this book? Best case you sell 10,000 copies, most of which will go unread. This is a vanity project masquerading as critique.
I hadn't considered what she's articulating here before and it made me want to read through more of her essays, so I guess I count as an iota of difference
I LOVE listening to this book. It was a slow start because I had to rewind a couple of times during the intro to confirm that you really said your hometown is Louisville, KY. My hometown is Whitesville, KY, but I live in Lexington now. Please come home if you do a book tour. We need you!!!!
Do the rich really love anti-racism, though? Or was it more so that the rich tried and (to an extent) succeeded to co-opt the BLM movement circa 2020, and are now disregarding many aspects of anti-racism because it no longer works for their interests? I’m seeing universities around the country cracking down on their DEI programs and ethnic studies/decolonial professors because those people are starting to threaten power in a legitimate way, chiefly through being sympathetic towards the pro-Palestine movement and supporting students against Trump. At my former university, the DEI director donated money for tents. I’m seeing intellectuals who were heralded by the Democratic Party and made famous for their antiracism work, like Ta-Nehisi Coates, coming out with very sharp criticisms of their war on Gaza. I’m seeing a lot of young progressive people participate in labor/anti-war actions and other forms of organizing because they were introduced to ideas of left-wing academics through BLM. At a Starbucks Workers United meeting I attended, several younger organizers said their first exposure to labor activism came through the language of Black liberation and anti-racism they encountered on TikTok in 2020. The very surface level and often corporate ideas of antiracism promoted by Democrats are weak and incapable of challenging power by themselves, but they do often serve as a pipeline for progressives to come and join the real left. From my perspective, a Democratic Party that at least pays lip service to race, identity, and inclusion is more fertile ground for organizing and pressure than one that erases those issues entirely. Sure, there will always be some upper-middle-class white liberal women who benefit disproportionately, and useless HR trainings, but that doesn’t mean we should be against it. We don’t know how members of the ruling class actually feel about the long-term effects of their donations to BLM, if that was a mistake to them or not.
I don’t think I fully agree with your piece either. The DSA and Jacobin writers who seem sick and tired of race reductionism got to that point after being in left organizations that put identity center stage, being around organizers who used identity as a cudgel to bash others who disagree with their views and create excessively hostile environments. There’s a reason BLM was co-opt-able before it was co-opted, which really goes unanswered in the anti-class reductionist pieces also coming out of magazines like Jaocbin and your own.
No, you don’t respond to many salient criticisms, I just read your piece an hour ago. You don’t even understand the purpose of criticizing works by race reductionist liberal Black scholars like Ibrahm X Kendi because Donald Trump banned his books in schools, as if thats at all relevant to actions and ideologies of people within left wing organizations. Your piece, while based on your organizing experience, makes quite a few broad sweeping judgements of various movements, of other organizers and organizations, etc which one can agree or disagree with based on their own “actual experience in organizations and actual time reading history.”
" Black graveness is a multi-billon dollar industry, BlackLivesMatter the organization have rank in billions during the wave of “peaceful” protests during 2020AD, even though the black homicide rate actually increase. That’s the thing, all that grifting from black graveness seem to have little positive impact on the Hamburgerian populace itself. #BlackLivesMatter’s stance on de-policing seem to have only the increase the killing and inter-killing of black folk, and soft on crime have only led to black own businesses being closed because of the cost of retail theft, the monopolization of companies like Amazon, and the increase of food deserts."
https://birbantum.substack.com/p/the-black-fetish
This is an unfortunate reductionist take.
I appreciate this thoughtful response from Tess Raser: https://open.substack.com/pub/tessraser/p/will-jacobin-ever-stop-publishing?r=5g3zd&utm_medium=ios
Antiracism "soundly rejects notions of biological racial difference" -- at it's best yes but some of it shades into some pretty disturbing race essentialism...that for me was the off-ramp, before I even understood (from watching your Jacobin show!) the counter-solidaristic aspect.
I'm such a huge fan of yours, Jen. So glad to see more of your writing here.
I miss seeing her on YouTube. Her shows were the best version of the medium.
Woke is broke so take a toke 😎
Sounds accurate.
Book!!!!!!!!! Congratulations<3<3<3<3
Some similar thoughts: "The Lit Bros Rediscover Identity Politics: Racing Back to the Past": https://fictiongutted.substack.com/p/the-lit-bros-rediscover-identity
I remember being part of a formal DEI campaign at my former workplace. Curiously I remember an Asian guy in the chat asking if it was okay to call a mixed-sex group “guys”, as in “hey guys”, and him just being rolled-over by the presenters. That workplace also struggled with being racially and economically diverse, that is, it remained an enclave of highly-skilled, privileged professionals, recruited from elite schools, and dedicated to serving an increasingly small client base of petroleum and mining interests. Not much room for taking on or facilitating the careers of traditionally disadvantaged people.
It seems to me that without concrete social action, DEI is just a kind of coded language that allows elites to perpetuate their own status - hence the Asian guy being railroaded by supposed DEI facilitators. This was made worse by the fact that the presenters were focusing mostly on American issues in spite of it being a Canadian company. We talked about Black Lives Matter, but nothing about the more pernicious problem of racism towards First Nations in Canada.
This is a timely article.
I’ve seen some luxury real estate built with DEI money and wow!
Only the print version takes the code
Reading this now. So good!!
I totally forgot I pre-ordered this back in February, what a fun surprise to get it today! Excited to read it. Will you be doing a book tour or anything (hopefully in Boston)?
Do you think you’re going to make an iota of difference with this book? Best case you sell 10,000 copies, most of which will go unread. This is a vanity project masquerading as critique.
I hadn't considered what she's articulating here before and it made me want to read through more of her essays, so I guess I count as an iota of difference
I LOVE listening to this book. It was a slow start because I had to rewind a couple of times during the intro to confirm that you really said your hometown is Louisville, KY. My hometown is Whitesville, KY, but I live in Lexington now. Please come home if you do a book tour. We need you!!!!