Great piece, Lou. Another area in which class reductionism has a significant blind spot is healthcare. A study published this month in the British Medical Journal claims there is a reduction in African American infant mortality when those infants are cared for by African American doctors. African American women often complain that their concerns are not taken seriously by doctors and other medical professionals, with tragic results. So even if Medicare for All were to become a reality, these problems could persist unless the issues of race are tackled head on to the same degree as "class."
"Black babies are less likely to die when cared for by black doctors, US study finds <https://www.bmj.com/content/370/bmj.m3315.full>" "Why middle-class black women dread the doctor’s office <https://news.berkeley.edu/2019/01/18/invisiblevisits/>" On Fri, Aug 28, 2020 at 8:18 AM Louis Proyect <[email protected]> wrote: > On August 14th, the N.Y. Times reported on the clash between Adolph Reed > Jr. and the Afrosocialists and Socialists of Color Caucus in DSA over an > event scheduled back in May by the LES and Philadelphia branches. The > caucus advocates stepped up support for BLM protests while Reed views them > as tools of corporate America. Naturally, when the event organizers > scheduled a Zoom lecture for Reed, the caucus demanded a debate, surely > expecting to be ignored. When Reed grew wary over the possibility that the > upstarts might crash his talk, he canceled himself. > > The Times article summarized the Reed position as shared by a class of > historians, political scientists and intellectuals who argue against > overstating race as a construct. Even if they accept the existence of > racism in the U.S., they reject the need for an anti-racist movement. > Instead, the goal is to create class unity around programs like Medicare > for All since poor whites would benefit as well. When you “fixate” on race, > you risk dividing a potentially powerful coalition and play into > conservatives’ hands. > > Of course, this vulgar Marxism seems even more outlandish than ever in the > face of the massive resistance to the status quo now underway. After the > George Floyd murder, anti-racist protests became the largest in American > history. Without skipping a beat, the NBA has gone on strike to protest the > cops who left Jacob Blake permanently paralyzed. To counterpose Medicare > for All to these struggles is foolish, if not outright reactionary. > > full: > https://louisproyect.org/2020/08/28/class-reductionisms-blind-spot-environmental-racism/ > > > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#946): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/946 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/76474346/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES<br />#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.<br />#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.<br />#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/8674936/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
