My thoughts on class reductionism

Sept 2021 update: Since I have written this, so much good stuff has come out. Particularly, this.

I have finally taken the time to educate myself, critically engage with my peers, and develop my own opinions and thoughts about the topic of class reductionism in general and within DSA. Thank you to all my peers who have contributed so much to my reflections on this.

For those of you who need a good primer on this topic, I recommend this article.

Before I talk about class reductionism, there is a lot of talk about DSA not attracting nor retaining people of color members, and in particular, Black members. Class reductionism is a part of this - no doubt. But there are other, kind of more simple things, too. Like for example, a vibe towards social frigidness, intellectualism, even perceived unfriendliness - sometimes. We all know what it's like to walk into a new, unfamiliar space. A warm, really friendly vibe is so key. Especially when you look around and people don't look like you. The COVID and masks situation right now really doesn't help. These are things that can be discussed and easily improved upon. While this topic is not the heart of this piece, I invite you all you engage with me on this topic if it interests you. 

Back to the topic - I understand the tendency of class reductionism and have been found guilty of it myself. If someone asked me tonight what is more important to me between dismantling patriarchy or dismantling capitalism, I would say dismantling capitalism, even though I care so deeply about both and know that they are intimately intertwined. But, I know this is just one preference out of many identities and many experiences. I also have to be honest about the fact that due to my current life circumstances and privileges, my identity as a woman does not have me currently fearing for my life. If that were different, who knows how I'd feel? I have a decent understanding of the anti-patriarchal work that would need to occur alongside dismantling capitalism in order for real liberation to manifest. Similarly, I see that the material gains from dismantling capitalism will benefit BIPOC greatly - but there is/will still be so much work that needs to be done in regard to anti-racism, anti-imperialism, and anti-colonialism; again, for liberation to manifest, regardless of the economic system we live in. I will admit that I do believe class is a very unique social identity - the one that unites us all, and the only one that most of us [Leftists, progressives, radicals] want to completely abolish. Contrast this with cultures/ ethnicity: we do not want to abolish them; we want to abolish xenophobia. That said...I am not a class reductionist, and here is why...

Dr. Adolph Reed is a well-known scholar and socialist, and I think we can be somewhat grateful to him for sparking continuous healthy debate among the Left in regard to class reductionism. I think it is interesting, for lack of a better term, that he uses public health and COVID racial disparities to illustrate the potential danger of grasping onto identity politics as a strategy for social progress. I find it interesting because as he points out in the Common Dreams article, and as I've discussed with my dear friend Dr. Alexis Cooke, there is a real fear of racialized medicine in public health once we start highlighting racial disparities. But, in my opinion, this is why of course we need to be intentional about how we communicate about racial disparities, especially to the public and laypeople. We know that there are very few examples of direct "genetic causation" of, or association to, poor health outcomes assigned to a particular racial category. Yet, we have to keep making this clear. As Alexis (aka Dr. Cooke) mentioned, there are still textbooks written in the last five years that try to make claims like this (e.g. "Black people are more tolerant of pain," which we know is socially-driven, and not genetic). 

In reality, in epidemiology, we pretty much observe, over and over, that race and other social identities can be independent risk factors for diverse poor health outcomes, which is discordant with what Dr. Reed discusses on the Jacobin video "The Myth of Class Reductionism." Meaning, if someone is of any or multiple marginalized social identities, it is often the case that they will experience poor health outcomes compared to their non-marginalized counterparts, even when we control for income, education, and more. To make it even more clear and simple: it is sometimes the case that Black folks experience certain poor health outcomes more often than non-Black folks, even when they are rich or educated. Meaning, that the social experience of being Black is what matters. Yes, being poor or working class is also very often an independent risk factor. Often times, multiple identities are ALL independent risk factors (being poor, not being a man, being a person of color, being disabled, being a [survival] sex worker, being a young/teen parent, etc.). 

In the case of race, we especially see this in maternal and child health, where Black women (regardless of class/income, education, and more) are more likely to experience poor pre- and perinatal health outcomes. Or if we want to be even more 2020 relevant - Black people in particular are killed and harassed by police more often than their non-Black counterparts - regardless of their class/economic status. For Black folks, there is arguably little/no economic escape from the life-threatening emotional and physical warfare that is state-sanctioned White violence and police violence. 

And Dr. Reed's claim that race is not "real" but racism is - this is a very big topic that we need to keep talking about. Yes, race is a social construction. But social constructions and processes are just as much a part of human biology and existence as genetics. Being social and creating social systems are biological processes. Again, yes, we need to make it clear that race is a social construction, especially to Old Blood in certain fields, but just because race is a social construction does not make it any less "real" in our social reality and biological existence as humanity. For more on this, I recommend Epigenetics and the Embodiment of Race by Kuzawa and Sweet.

So what does all this mean? As a public health professional; as a Leftist; as a humanist; as a woman; as an anti-racist; as a first-gen college grad raised by a poor, incarcerated, drug-using single father; I'd argue the same points as the article I linked. I think identity matters, a lot, in difference times and environments. People care a lot about it because it's often about staying alive in this moment. Who is anyone to dismiss that? And why do we think we can't unify to fight capitalism and other forms of oppression? We need to be more creative. I think Bernie absolutely failed in regard to the reparations question. I believe strongly in reparations. And just like that, I believe in repairing harm against all marginalized folks. 

Do I want to unite the working class? Of course. But if this moment, this year is showing us anything, it's that we have incredible potential to unite around all identities - and around being working people - without ignoring race, gender, and more. Capitalism can be [y]our favorite thing to work towards dismantling, but that doesn't mean you [we] shouldn't engage with, talk about, and care deeply about other layers of oppression.

Photo by Rob Liggins