Confronting the Dog-Whistle

The one percent have to promote fear among racial groups because the rich themselves are very afraid of the masses. Much is at stake as Dear Leader rages in a way that even causes the Wall Street Journal to complain.

Message matters and Paul Rosenberg highlights a project lead by Anat Shenker-Osorio and Ian Haney Lopez to unify narratives addressing racial justice and economics. The work is presented in a national survey and a messaging guide. Rosenberg quotes Shenker-Osorio:

When we simply lay down a disparity and we do not provide a causal connection, people fill in the cause for themselves. So when we say, "Household wealth has taken this giant hit [and] this is especially true for African-Americans," what does the person conclude about why African-Americans do not have household wealth? Or why communities of color do not have good earnings? … It’s their fault!

That is why I bring you a race-class narrative. ... It is not a "race & class narrative." It is a narrative that weaves together race and class and makes a causal connection between these two issues. It explicitly names the need for cross-racial solidarity in terms of joining together with people of other races, joining together across racial difference. Not some generic, Kumbaya, we-all-need-to-get-on-the-same-page, we-all-need-to-get-together, we-all-need-to-be-as-one. It actually names racial difference -- it says we need to join across it for political change, in order to become, create and be a government that looks like all, reflects all and works for all, toward ... both shared prosperity and racial justice.