Race vs. Class

First, I appreciate your long reply.

Second, you are making a number of assumptions about what you think I will say. And you do so with a tone that seems cynical. So, from the beginning you are putting up walls when I’m trying to build a bridge.

The fact that you refer to this issue as “brow beating” is part of the problem. It only feels like a “beating” because you don’t like the message and you probably don’t agree with the reality of the privilege. And we only have to keep “brow beating” because we come up against so many who refuse to accept the reality of the situation. (Again, having white privilege does not mean you’re a racist, not does it mean you don’t have other disadvantages in life. One is not mutually exclusive to the other).

The white trailer trash demographic problem you are referring to is very much real. But that is a problem of class, not race. Those are two very different problems. Both are real, and both deserve real answers.

The sad irony is that a large percentage of those “trailer trash” whites have attached themselves to a PO(tu)S, an administration, and a party that doesn’t give two-shits about them. Period. Those trailer trash would not be given the time of day by the likes of Trump and his lot. They pass laws and policies that hurt them as much as they hurt other marginalized groups.

So why do they attach themselves on to the likes of this president? Because he appeals to their nationalistic, race-based pride and uses it as a way to pit two groups of people who would be better served as allies.

My answer to your query is that I would implore those trailer trash whites to realize and recognize that our two groups will both be better served if they recognize the reality of white privilege (whatever you decide to call it), and open up a dialog to the issues they have as lower class whites. There are forces at work in this country who have a hegemony based on race and class that they don’t want to lose. Let’s be allies in fighting all forms of systemic oppression, whether it be race-based on class-based.