Are you asking if I'm pretending racism doesn't exist because that's a stupid claim since I made it the number 2 issue in America. If that's not your point what is?
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I don't think you're pretending racism doesn't exist, and I definitely agree that class is a hugely overlooked issue. In a lot of cases I wish we acknowledged class more! But ignoring the effects of racism on class or ignoring how racism can weaken the benefits of class is problematic as well.
I didn't ignore race. Made it the number two issue. But you took issue with my number 1 which means you're ignoring class. Result? More black police officers and other such "solutions" that don't change the status quo one iota. That's how you get bombs with rainbow flag stickers so to speak.
I agree more black police officers won't fix anything, and I suspect that's because racism (and classism and sexism) are often systemic and institutionally reinforced. You can't replace the bad apples in the barrel if it's the barrel making the apples bad in the first place.
I don't think you're ignoring race, and I don't think objecting to ranking racism and class means I'm ignoring class. I think class is important. I think gender is important. I think race is important. They'll be important to different degrees depending on the context.
My point is that it's very difficult to come up with an objective ordered list of the issues in America because issues overlap/interact differently depending on context, e.g., comparing a white woman to a black man in a business environment vs being pulled over by police.
Definitely closes the gap. But racism (or gender) hits in ways that wealth cannot easily erase, since wealth is not always conspicuous. Even within class there are hierarchies of power. In a nutshell: I agree with your emphasis on class, but I feel weird about ranking it in absolute terms.
I definitely don't deal in absolutes. Which is why I buy stock in generalities or statistics. And by going along those routes, I'd say a black man in a beamer VS a white woman in a rusted out geo metro, the metro is probably gonna get pulled over first.
All the research I've seen demonstrates a racial bias in traffic stops, even when class is considered. Google/Semantic Scholar have quite a collection of accessible papers addressing the issue of "driving while black".
All the research you've seen doesn't research a class bias. I'd say equal parts intentionally and the fact that it's hard to get numbers on all the rich people cops don't police. Also overpolicing black people is both race and class, an overlapping issue.
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