Charlotte's Fundraising Page for Organizing to Win: Building Racial Justice with White Poor and Working Class Communities
If recent political events have made anything clear, it's that white people need to be doing better and doing more in the fight for racial and economic justice. But we won't be able to win by ignoring or ridiculing poor and working-class white progressive leaders and organizations. It was trendy among political pundits to blame the rise of Trump, and his fascist, neo-nazi, and white supremacist cronies, as the work of poor, rural, and white voters. While white-working class voters in rural areas make up some of Trump’s base, it is factually misleading to present them as the typical or sole Trump voter. In fact, exit polls show that the average Trump voter tended to have a higher median income and a college degree. Displacing all of the blame for systemic racism on the white working class presents both erases white working class progressivism and deflects attention away from the more wealthy and politically powerful architects of white supremacy, such as Donald Trump, Steve Bannon, Rex Tillerson, Robert Mercer, or Scott Pruitt, to name just a few.
If we’re going to successfully stop Trump, fight global racial inequality, and build a more equitable system for the 99 rather than the 1%, we’re going to need to stop scapegoating the white working class. Rather, progressive movements, and particularly white people of privilege, need to engage with and learn from the leadership of white working-class communities that have been leading progressive campaigns for economic, environmental, and health justice in Trump-like areas for decades.
I give to Catalyst Project every month because they have long been resisting calls to dismiss the white working class and have been organizing with poor and working class white communities for decades to support and strengthen their racial justice practices. As a white Jewish woman with class privilege, I personally have much to learn from white communities that have been organizing in conservative and underresourced communities for years. Whiteness and privilege looks different for all of us, but we all have a role to play in dismantling white supremacy and building a more just world.
Given the urgency of our current moment, Catalyst needs your help to bring together white working-class organizations for an upcoming convening from April 20th-23rd. Over the weekend, 40 leaders organizing with poor and working class white communities across the U.S. will gather at the historic Highlander Center to share skills, strategy, and analysis about building racial justice. Your donation will help make it happen.
Will you join me in supporting Catalyst Project's upcoming convening, where participants will vision and plan for a white anti-racist movement led by working-class communities?
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