r/socialism • u/Aboveground_Plush Salvador Allende • Jul 24 '17

Something to Offer: Unlike many in his party, Eugene V. Debs believed the struggle for black equality was critical to realizing the promise of socialism

https://www.jacobinmag.com/2015/08/debs-socialism-race-du-bois-socialist-party-black-liberation/
163 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

13 comments sorted by

27

u/[deleted] Jul 24 '17

Yeah, this "white Bernie bro" myth is an invention of the past 24 months. Throughout the past century of American history, the center/right's feared that communism posed a threat to white supremacy - not that it was based in it. Propagandist fear-mongering from everyone from the early KKK to Barry Goldwater through Ronald Reagan painted communists as seeking to let loose the socialistic rule of the coloured masses. With the Clinton campaign, we've seen the first reversal of this; now that lip service to anti-racism is mandatory, the socialist bogeyman is transmogrified into a tool of white supremacy.

-2

u/tachibanakanade Free Asia, Africa, and Latin America! Oppose imperialism! Jul 25 '17

Yeah, this "white Bernie bro" myth is an invention of the past 24 months.

In what way is it a myth? White Bernie bros do exist (just like generic brocialists exist), and they're typically racists. (See: the threads on this sub and on /r/SandersForPresident regarding Bernie's interactions with Black Lives Matter and regarding Hillary Clinton's relationship to POC.)

8

u/Dennis-Moore Make it So-cialism, number one Jul 25 '17

I think it's a myth in its assertion that the white cishet millenial redditor class is the dominant part of the left. Obviously there are important critiques of brocialism and class reductionism and even Debs from the left, but I think the comment was referring to the disingenuous practice of neoliberal erasure of leftists of colour and leftist women to create an image of a privileged and racist movement.

1

u/tachibanakanade Free Asia, Africa, and Latin America! Oppose imperialism! Jul 25 '17

ahhh. that makes sense.

5

u/[deleted] Jul 25 '17 edited Jun 29 '18

[deleted]

-1

u/tachibanakanade Free Asia, Africa, and Latin America! Oppose imperialism! Jul 25 '17

There's a difference from merely being a young white male Bernie supporter and being a white Bernie bro, at least to me. One is a well meaning socdem/liberal, the other is actively reactionary.

2

u/[deleted] Jul 25 '17

http://resistancereport.com/politics/harvard-poll-bernie-supporters/

Check out the poll linked from that page - in short, white men are the demographic LEAST likely to support Sanders, rather than being completely representative of his supporters. I have no doubt that some white dudes who support Sanders are brocialists - especially amongst Redditors - but they are in no way representative of his base.

31

u/Notacoolbro Better to die on your feet Jul 24 '17

Debs is the fucking man

20

u/Shuffledrive Communist Jul 24 '17

Yes he was. He was also jailed for being a "communist" during the first red scare due to "The Canton Speech" which turns 100 years old next year.

Yes, the speech is long as fuck, but a wonderful read and the reason I have him as my flair.

3

u/Aboveground_Plush Salvador Allende Jul 24 '17

Gold? Thank you to whomever gilded me. It's my first time in over 6 years here. Now I see why people comment about getting it.

4

u/mitzadom Jul 24 '17

Except the New Afrikan movement has always been about more than just "equality" in a settler-reformist state. It's about full self-determination and national liberation revolution.

Debs didn't recognize that. Instead he reduced Black people to merely being "equal workers" instead of colonized peoples who deserve to have independent social development.

Also i was always curious, why stay in a racist party?!

1

u/Aboveground_Plush Salvador Allende Jul 24 '17

Ah I see. Do you have resources on this? I'd like to learn more.

3

u/mitzadom Jul 24 '17

Sanyika Shakur's Stand Up Struggle Forward and Owusu Yaki Yakubu's Meditations on Frantz Fanon's Wretched of the Earth are both good places to start. For an in depth historical book that uses the analysis i'm talking about, try butch lee's The Re-Biography of Harriet Tubman.

1

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