Arguments on the Left: Class and Race

Arguments on the Left: Class and Race

Four short essays by Carla Murphy, Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò, Touré F. Reed, and Anika Fassia and Tinselyn Simms.

Illustration by Molly Crabapple

Multiple Mainstreams by Carla Murphy

“Left conversations seem unaware of the value of redistributing news media power such that non-whites and working people construct their own left conversations about race and class.”



A Unified Story for a Divided World by Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò

“Wars of position rage between ‘race reductionists’ who insist on the political primacy of race and their ‘class reductionist’ counterparts. But some of us, especially those of us who make use of racial capitalism as a set of frameworks, insist that such debate is tired.”



The Political Economy of Racial Inequality by Touré F. Reed

“The racial justice discourse that has gone mainstream lends itself to modest reforms to a system that is less and less capable of distributing its rewards to working people.”



The Race Class Narrative Can Win by Anika Fassia and Tinselyn Simms

“[The Race Class Narrative] reveals the strategy of the right and builds cross-racial support for progressive policies.”



Read more arguments in our summer issue.