Very few media outlets, including many beyond the corporate mainstream, are mentioning how plutocracy is at the root of the rise of the authoritarian, pseudo-populism of Trump.
It’s a sign of progress that the vast majority of outlets frequently talk about racism and the problem of white supremacy.
Many of the outlets are even talking about white supremacy not just as a violent revanchist force but as an insidious systemic phenomenon operating within and beyond polite society.
All that is obviously good, but fascism may take a form that many of us presently don’t expect.
Even though the white-black wealth gap has changed little since the Civil War and mass incarceration and police violence disproportionately harm black communities, there are black people in many of our institutions including law enforcement, the military, big city governments, academia, corporate America, and the professional-managerial class.
If attacks on democracy continue, fascist proponents may seek some way to get support from black people, with maybe nativist, anti-immigrant policies.
It’s hard to say, but at any rate, grassroots organizing is key to building multiracial democracy, economically and politically, amid a plutocracy which is very good at a type of shape-shifting and cooptation that complements its violently repressive methods.
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