This might actually be the rare case that I disagree with you, Dave. I think that if you are white and working class it is a mistake to accept the characterization of the white working class as "bigoted" and "more a bit thick"... I think you might be accepting terms of debate offered you by your enemy... I personally have accepted that the problematization of whiteness is itself part of the problem of modern post-WWII racial dynamics is which racism (as opposed to theft, murder, fraud, usury, etc) is seen as the ultimate evil. I actually have basically come around to the politics of Crass in White Punks on Hope - "we're all just niggers to the rulers of this land". I do actually think that the system makes working class whites feel that they should be ashamed for their privilege... even they themselves are economically exploited descendents of dispossessed peasants. As a rapper I like said: "The matrix of entrapment is socioeconomic." I'm still somewhat shy to speak up about such things, because I don't want to be associated with Proud Boy douchebags, but the racial politics that has been foisted upon us as part of the package of woke ideology include white guilt... and I think we would do well to reject that altogether... although I'm all for doing so in the most diplomatic, strategic way possible. Racism is real is we don't want to contribute to it. But I think that if we are sincere in our aspirations to challenge power in order to bring about a more equitable world, it will shine through.
This might actually be the rare case that I disagree with you, Dave. I think that if you are white and working class it is a mistake to accept the characterization of the white working class as "bigoted" and "more a bit thick"... I think you might be accepting terms of debate offered you by your enemy... I personally have accepted that the problematization of whiteness is itself part of the problem of modern post-WWII racial dynamics is which racism (as opposed to theft, murder, fraud, usury, etc) is seen as the ultimate evil. I actually have basically come around to the politics of Crass in White Punks on Hope - "we're all just niggers to the rulers of this land". I do actually think that the system makes working class whites feel that they should be ashamed for their privilege... even they themselves are economically exploited descendents of dispossessed peasants. As a rapper I like said: "The matrix of entrapment is socioeconomic." I'm still somewhat shy to speak up about such things, because I don't want to be associated with Proud Boy douchebags, but the racial politics that has been foisted upon us as part of the package of woke ideology include white guilt... and I think we would do well to reject that altogether... although I'm all for doing so in the most diplomatic, strategic way possible. Racism is real is we don't want to contribute to it. But I think that if we are sincere in our aspirations to challenge power in order to bring about a more equitable world, it will shine through.