Diversity is Nothing Without Solidarity
With the mania of the election behind us, there’s finally an opportunity to put the outcome in its historical context. What’s next for progressives for whom Joe Biden’s win was necessary but woefully inadequate?
Professor Cornel West has been one of the most consistent, radical voices in America’s public sphere for the last 40 years, and is the current host of the podcast The Tightrope with Brown University professor Tricia Rose. During an interview with AJ+’s Dena Takruri, West offered some thoughts on how best to frame and understand this moment.
The rot remains
“We avoided a neofascist catastrophe, and now we've got to come to terms with the neoliberal disaster,” says West. “The rot itself is still there … and so thinking that somehow we can go back to normal when those very normal conditions were the prerequisite for the neofascist backlash? If you don't come to terms with Wall Street greed, with 140 million fellow citizens living in or near poverty, if you don't come to terms with the Pentagon militarism, with 53 cents for every dollar going to the military, and then the vicious policies in Latin America, AFRICOM in Africa, the vicious Israeli occupation vis-a-vis our precious Palestinians, the presence in Asia ... you're not going to be able to fight the next wave of fascism, the next wave of Trumpism.”
On the state of American fascism
West, like many others, does not see the election as a repudiation of Trumpism. “Fifty-eight percent of white male citizens ... [and] 53% of white female citizens voted for the neofascist gangster .... no grounds for celebration,” West said. “If Black people disappeared today, fascism would reign, not just in the Middle East, not just in imperialist tentacles in Latin America and other places, but right at home. And even Black leadership is still tied to neoliberalism. But they voted against the neofascist gangster.”
Fighting sexism to fight fascism
On the topic of the surprising number of Black men who voted for Trump, West was not shocked. “There's always been a conservatism among all communities, no matter what color. The toxic masculinity, the identification of a Superman or maleness with a winner that dominates and engages in conquest of women cuts very deep in every culture that we know, including Black culture,” he said. “So, in that sense, we’ve just got to fight the patriarchy, got to fight sexism.”
Don’t count on taking over the Democratic Party
“I just don't think the Democratic Party has the capacity to really embrace [the] progressive wing in a substantive way,” West said, reflecting on Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s cohort, and her comments to the Times. “Which is to say, it doesn't have the capacity to treat poor and working people with the dignity that poor and working people deserve. The Democratic Party is run by its establishment, is deeply shaped by its donors, is tied to Wall Street, is tied to war and profiteering linked to Pentagon militarism … Every four years you get some lip service to certain progressive issues.”
Diversity is nothing without solidarity
Diversity, said West, means little without solidarity. He referenced Representative Jim Clyburn of South Carolina, who is Black. “Clyburn’s voice is central [to the Democratic Party]. He gets over a million dollars from big pharmaceutical companies, so [he’s] probably not going to be for Medicare for All. Even though we know in his own district, you got poor Black people and others who need Medicare for All,” West said, “if you don't have deep solidarity, [diversity] is not going to go too far. That would be true for Black women in the Democratic Party. They can celebrate all they want in terms of being Black women who gain access to the class and imperial hierarchy … whereas solidarity with Palestinian women who are catching hell, who are occupied ... that’s solidarity, that's integrity. If you’re just talking about identity, politics is empty in the end.”
The specter of a third Obama term
West believes that Biden’s presidency could echo Obama’s in many negative ways. “When Obama won ... too many people went to sleep, [and] you had isolated, lonely voices trying to connect them to the law, the greed and the Pentagon militarism, the bombs dropped in Afghanistan, the drones dropped in Somalia and Yemen and so forth,” West said. “We've got to be vigilant … not just progressive, but decent human beings who believe in intellectual integrity and telling the truth and keeping track of the suffering of people so that we don't get complacent. We have to be consistent. You've got too many progressives who hate Trump, but when it comes to Trump-like figures like Netanyahu, can't say a mumbling word. When it comes to Trump-like figures like Modi, you can hardly say a mumbling word. I'm glad we prevented the neofascism in the White House,” West said, “but we can't go back to sleep at all.”