Rinku Sen

White Progressives Don’t Get Race

In this month's In These Times , I wrote a response to a profile ITT had run of Walter Benn Micheals, who wrote a new book about why economic inequality trumps racial diversity as a progressive concern. Just after the ITT profile came out, I spoke to a white progressive friend (yes, I have many) who said, "I can't believe we have to do this again." Me neither, but I'm willing.

I find Benn Micheals to be writing in the tradition of Todd Gitlin (Twilight of Our Common Dreams) and Michael Tomasky (Left for Dead) in essentially accusing racial justice activists, who by the way, tend to be of color, of dividing and distracting the "universal" progressive movement. I argue that universalism in progressive politics actually means white, leading to public policies that at best ignore racial disparities and at worst aggravate them. So many white progressives still talk about racial politics from the "diversity" angle, adopting a race analysis that leads Americans to applaud a presidential cabinet filled with the likes of Condoleeza Rice even while federal policy does its best to kill off public education. So mainstream. Conservative even.

Racial justice matters to the progressive agenda not because people of color need help, but because progressive racial politics point the way to real inclusive public policy and social change. Progressives of color have moved far beyond the race debate of the 1980's, and we need white progressives to do the same.

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Posted at 4:30 PM, Dec 18, 2006 in Racial Justice
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