The Constant Rehashing of Racial Justice versus Economic Justice Harms Us All

The AFL-CIO gets it right. Both are equally important.

Why are we doing this?

What do we gain by promoting, and fighting about, the absolutely false dichotomy between racial justice and economic justice?

Equal rights for all, social justice for all, equal opportunity for all, economic justice for all, are ALL inextricably intertwined, interdependent, inseparable, and equally important.

We are wasting energy, talent and time when we fight about this.

It’s hard not to notice that always lurking just beneath the surface of this interminable and artificial debate are the never ending recriminations about Hillary v Bernie.

Is there anyone here who truly believes that Hillary Clinton doesn’t consider economic justice to be just as important as racial and social justice?

Is there anyone here who truly believes that Bernie Sanders doesn’t consider racial and social justice to be just as important as economic justice?

Is there anyone here who doesn’t understand that we can’t achieve either without the other?

Here’s the bottom line: 

When we fight about this, when we insist on the primacy of “identity politics” or the primacy of “economic politics”, the result will inevitably be that we are much less likely to achieve either economic justice or racial and social justice.

ENOUGH. Please.