10 November 2016

On liberal hand-wringing and 'ignoring whites'

Since Trump won I have seen quite a few comments from both left and right that his victory is due to a smug liberal elite ignoring the concerns of poor white people.

I would like to see some actual evidence that it has happened. For one thing the 'elite' is not homogeneous.

Also many of the problems facing the working class are due to the actions of conservative governments on both sides of the Atlantic.

We run the risk of starting to believe the lies put out by the right wing press about us. Yes some of us are out of touch but not all of us.

Also from my own personal experience, prejudice and ignorance are still rife in all sectors of society.

In the US, a black man remains more likely to go to prison than get a degree. When prosecutors try to bring charges against police officers who kill or attack people, it is often white dominated juries that acquit them.

Yet black people can be racist too. Some view the 'white man' as some homogeneous evil to be avoided. We are 22 years away from a black on black genocide in Rwanda.

We need to focus on people who have been left behind by globalisation but we cannot do that by pandering to bigotry.

There are seven billion people on this planet, many worse off than the poorest Westerners.

This is a global problem and it needs a global solution.

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