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NonwhiteBluecollarWorkers.jpg

Samantha Bee Talks To The Non-White Working Class. Yes! They Actually Exist!

By Emily Cutler | TV | January 18, 2018 |

By Emily Cutler | TV | January 18, 2018 |


NonwhiteBluecollarWorkers.jpg

One of the overwhelming facts we’ve learned from the 2016 election is that the U.S. working class has economic anxieties, and that they feel like the bigwigs in Washington aren’t addressing those. Trump supporters, we’ve been told over and over again, have been forgotten, and the Democratic party needs to recognize their faults if we want to win back the support of blue collar voters. Even to the point where still, a full year of thirty-five-ish-percent approval ratings, major, respected, “Liberal” newspapers are just begging to hear what Trump supporters are thinking.

Here’s the thing: Those think pieces aren’t talking about blue-collar workers. They’re talking about white blue-collar workers. Almost exclusively.

Well, holy balls, it’s almost like both our media and politicians are giving more attention to the thoughts and feelings of white men at the expense of listening to the concerns of women and people of color. Huh, I wonder how that happened? Also, quick point of order, the current working class is majority people of color. Like minority-families-are-forty-percent-of-the-total-population-but-fifty-eight-percent-of-low-income-working-families. We’re not only missing the point when we talk about how Trump speaks to the forgotten white coal worker, we’re perpetuating the entire idea that the votes of minorities and women aren’t worth seeking. Which, you know, People Arguing That The Democratic Party Needs To Win Back White Voters In Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania? Virginia and Fucking Alabama would like to have a word.

Why do we continually do this to ourselves? Why do we fight for votes of people who not only aren’t interested in our platform, but are willing to actively work against it? Trump voters felt like they’d gotten a bad deal, and their response was to support a racist, misogynistic, joke of an authoritarian business failure because he was willing to lie to them and say that their misfortunes should be blamed on brown people indiscriminately. Do you really want that guy at your party? Or should we maybe focus on not shitting on the people who are both supporters of the Democratic platform, and ACTUALLY CONSTITUTE THE WORKING CLASS YOU SEEM SO INTERESTED IN?

Maybe the best thing the Democratic Party could do in the 2018 election is to actually help dismantle the current white-male supremacy system by just not giving a fuck about how policies play to that base. They could focus on policies that accomplish their goals even if they don’t explicitly benefit white guys. We could also, god forbid, proceed with movement regardless of the standard white dude’s approval (Yes, we will continue talking about how creepy some guys are even if it makes you uncomfortable!). And as always, I wait with bated breath to hear from white dudes just what I got wrong in the comment section.