As someone who has been called a rad lib, identitarian, and race reductionist(all by the way incredibly mean things to say to me personally and I will cry), I don't think those people realize how much leftists of color try to insert a class analysis among politicized BIPOC peeps.

Cuz when you first get political, but are unorganized, haven't read much or anything, your politics are drawn from your experience so you are a committed anti-racist, Black AF, but still aspire to be a millionaire and think that society needs cops.

So we end up connecting on race politics and I try to make the case to white supremacy is dependent on capitalism that we can't get rid of racism under capitalism. Make the case that we can keep us safe, and that cops reproduce violence.

But like, if you're a white leftist, embracing class chauvinism, trying to talk to what Jeff Sessions would call a "Black Identity Extremist" and nigga don't even have a lot of white homies so you lucky he chattin', and you open your mouth to downplay race, the convo is over.

And you've missed out on an opportunity to build a relationship with someone, you missed out on an organizing opportunity, and moment of radicalization.

What you did potentially do, especially if you called yourself a socialist is to tell that brother that Left doesn't care about racism, socialists don't care about black people. And this dude could be a socialist in the making but its now that much harder to bring em in.

So what are the takeaways? Contrary to the strawmen of our opponents, Leftists of color often talk about class in BIPOC spaces. A principled anti-racist politics is vital to be in community with black people and to recruit us to socialist politics and organization.

There is a fear, a fear rooted in real active liberal co-option of radical aesthetics, language, and the reproduction of a hollow social justice orientation that assaults the Left, in the process watering down social justice struggle&alienating potential support(cuz libs suck).

But we can't cede social justice to liberals, they're bad it, and cannot, ideologically, do what needs to be done(tear down capitalism) to advance social justice.

There is another concern about mass politics, that suggest these particular reforms from social movements and oppressed people,they are standing in the way of an economic justice coalition.But what is a mass politics without black, migrant,women, queer people? What do we give up?

We have a Green New Deal that excludes indigenous people. We have a Medicare-For-All that doesn't cover abortion care. We keep Trump's wall but U.S. citizens get free college.

How different is the idea for every black or queer person you lose, you pick four white guys in hard hats from Wisconsin who hate women and immigrants, but highly support Medicare for All from Chuck Schumer's refrain in 2016?

There is so much opportunity right now btw looming mass evictions of millions, an economic recession that rivals the losses of the Great Depression,a pandemic,an anti-racist uprising,an election that pairs a reactionary narcissist against a war criminal,we need to grow the Left.