Yet when activists try to combat racism by calling it out, they often struggle to accomplish their goals. Focusing on Trump’s racist behavior did not keep him from winning the presidency. The Black Lives Matter movement has mostly failed to implement its
Race-based strategies are especially challenging in a country where living standards have stagnated in recent decades: Working-class families of all races have reason to distrust the notion that they enjoy a privileged lifestyle. No wonder that Steve Bannon, the far-right political figure, once said that he wanted liberals “to talk about racism every day.” When they do, Bannon said, “I got 'em."
The Arbery trial offers a reminder that calling out racism is not the only way to battle it. Sometimes, a more effective approach involves appealing to universal notions of fairness and justice.
In other words, the more you make the struggle for justice a culture war issue, the less successful will young progressives be. The idea is to appeal to people's innate sense of what's right. As soon as you start guilt tripping people, you've lost them. But in order to do that, you have to believe that all humans have that in them--this capacity to be moved by the transcendental 'Justice'.
The only way to defeat a toxic cultural inheritance like racism is to appeal to awaken people to values that transcend culture. If you don't or can't, then the struggle is reduced to a power game, one power coalition pushing out another ad infinitum. The old oppressed become the new oppressors, and I have no dog in that fight.
This supports the argument I made in my post last week--"Young Socialist Intellectuals".