CCFCJosh75 wrote:Shall we play a game? You have to guess whether the statements apply to a white or black person.
1) You are more likely to be stopped by the police.
2) You are more likely to be sent to prison for committing the same crime as a white/black counterpart.
3) You are 4 times more likely to have forced used against you by police.
The thing is Josh, it all depends on how you want to slice the data.
Exactly the same statements can be applied on a class basis and you will find working-class people of any ethnicity will be statistically more likely to be prejudiced in each of the above examples than their wealthier peers.
If you are truly on the side of seeking equality, the first place to look to resolve the issue isn't by creating unnecessary divides amongst sub-sets of the working class based on race.
From an analytical point of view, the statistics you allude to are the product of poor methodology.
Yes, I know, this isn't your analysis, I also know that it is a widely prevalent and publicised assumption that has been made that race is a key determining factor. However, that doesn't stop it from being wrong.
If data is to be interpreted effectively to drive genuine insight, it is important to identify first the foundational discrepancies within the full data set at the broadest level before moving on to the further nuanced analysis of sub-sets of the data. That is simply very rarely done and all too often the leap is based on race, not class.
Why is a good question, but perhaps one for another time, the point is that the analysis should be on the wider factors first to identify the level 1 trends, which are largely class and economic status based, and then within that to look at relative comparisons of race, gender, religion, single parent vs. two-parent etc.
Shooting straight for racism being a root cause for all issues is just lazy thinking. As I say I fully accept it is prevalent, but that doesn't stop it from being wrong. It is identifying a single layer of a multivariant problem and proclaiming this is the problem solved. In fact, it is worse than that, it is identifying a sub-set of a single layer of a multivariant problem.
When we do occasionally see studies that adopt a more robust foundation for their analysis and introduce multiple factors into the analysis, all too often we see white working-class are the truly marginalised demographic in our society, particularly, white working-class young men. Frankly, they are being left to rot and it is criminal that they are been so glibly cast-aside by a sneering elitist class, but again, that is discussion perhaps for another time.
However,
the point here should not be which sub-set of the working class is suffering the most, but more importantly what can be done to bridge the gap between the working and middle class across all subset demographics. You want to fight injustice in this country? Start with class-based prejudiced and improving opportunities for all working-class children regardless of ethnicity
You want to fight injustice against black and brown people? Start with any of the issues I listed earlier in this thread. Then we have things like religious genocide and African slavery licked we can come back and solve things like in-group bias within the workplace.
Otherwise, all of the white noise coming out of this misguided BLM-inspired idiocracy is nothing but empty rhetoric that doesn't give a damn about black lives or equality for all. In fact, it is nothing but divisive poison designed to give those too ignorant to actually give a damn just enough of a dopamine hit to feel superior to those awful right-wing working-class bigots that are lurking on every corner.
