When I was in the 7th grade my father had an emergency surgery. He was uninsured and when he woke up from surgery with a colostomy, in immense pain, he was flailing and screaming. As my sister turned the nurse hurried out of the room. My sister raced out to find out what was happening. The answer the nurse gave was, "he is uninsured, we cant give him any pain medicine". My over all perception is I dont care about any other answer, we need to provide people healthcare. How many people do you know that are no longer working but could be due to an untreated health condition?
While I whole heartedly believe in universal healthcare. I also dont believe it is the cure to all ills. Many people think it will solve racism, or wars, make everything equal. This is only moderately the case. So all these so called progressives on the socialism bandwagon are more than willing to air their racism out thats been hiding in the cellars under the guise of anti colonialism, or throw in nods to how it will help the white working class. The insidiousness of racism that says all people and amends itself to not them, or them, or those people, only this one type of person. Socialism is only the distribution of wealth its not the distribution of equality, or justice, its only economic. This is a nod to the Bernie bros who seem to understand this, and be ok with it. Lets just have an economic revolution that never accounts for our history of racism and certainly doesnt attempt to correct it.
Lets address where this assumption might come from as well the right and the wrong of it. We cant advocate outright socialism while we also have to accept that capitalism in its current form was not designed to work for communities of color. Nothing is simple and nothing is one policy.
There are some things that important to keep in mind when trying to grapple with the American relationship with socialism. A core following of the socialist movement in the U.S. were civil rights activists. They were of the opinion that gains were made in racial equality in the Soviet Union, which is true but the fact is that the Soviet Union collapsed and actual equality was still not met. The Black Panthers, MLK Jr., Angela Davis, Malcolm X. All if not explicitly in supported of socialism, were of the belief that capitalism as a system with racism would never allow communities of color to conquer oppression. As far as I can gather the idea is that if there was not barrier to economic stability people of color could do the rest overcome and have otherwise self sustaining communities.
The evidence that the U.S. has weaponized capitalism against communities of color is ample. You cant really talk about the issues impacting communities of color without considering that resources are held hostage within the system. Slavery itself is the root of American capitalism. There is an article from Forbes below that details this. Couple this with the prison system, the massacre of anything that provides opportunity for these communities including in-equal funding on education or the actual massacre of black Wallstreet. There is a valid argument that capitalism will never benefit people of color in the United States in total. We have to rebuild every system. Which may be possible after the Trump administration because there will be nothing left by the end of all of this.
So what about socialism? Socialism comes with an entirely different set of issues. The complicated history is that not only Hitler but virtually every socialist thinker of the early 20th century was a proponent of genocide. If the rising tide lifts all ships and you only want the white ships rise you have to only have white ships. Hitler was of the opinion that socialism and Judaism were somehow at odds. So as the acceptance of socialism rolls into the American consciousness there also is a rise in nationalism, anti-Semitism, anti feminism, xenophobia, racism. The question is are all these things connected? I turn to other countries, Denmark that is well known for its socialist programs and its low income inequality still has a fairly prevalent culture built on racism, the same goes for Canada. So there goes that.
Engles and Marx posit that these inequalities are created by the state there for socialism and eventually communism will break down the inequalities as the state ceases to exist. This divorces the idea that systems of oppression are self fulfilling and not dependent on other systems. Thats why racism is insidious and not easily solved by say ending slavery or the Civil Rights Act, or Affirmative Action, or the Americans with Disabilities act. At some point we need to address the reality that the U.S. has been constructed on a foundation of white supremacy and not single policy or economic system is going to fix that.
Stop conflating economics as the solutions to social ills. We have reached a point in history where we need to fight for everyone or no one. Why cant we all have healthcare? Wouldnt true freedom afford us the option between socialism and capitalism? One person is not capable of paying for private insurance while another simply doesnt think that the state provides care that they want and both people have options that are plausible, no one goes without. Oh wait we already had the ACA all we need now is a Medicare for all and allow the insurance companies to continue existing, in which case they will compete with free. No one deserves to die or preventable diseases and no one deserves to be denied treatment because they cant afford it. FULL STOP.
Here is a Wikihow on breaking down racism.
https://www.wikihow.com/Help-Reduce-Racism
Sources
www.dsausa.org/socialism_in_black_america_dl
https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/jewish-socialism-in-europe/
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/hitler-and-the-socialist-dream-1186455.html
https://www.bustle.com/p/the-women-of-democratic-socialism-prove-the-movement-isnt-just-a-bunch-of-sexist-white-guys-78554
https://www.vox.com/2016/2/4/10918710/berniebro-bernie-bro
http://sfbayview.com/2011/02/what-happened-to-black-wall-street-on-june-1-1921/
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/sep/02/socialism-young-americans-bernie-sanders
http://www.ebony.com/black-history/the-destruction-of-black-wall-street-405
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/rachel-decoste/racism-in-canada_b_6401578.html
http://www.conferenceboard.ca/hcp/details/society/income-inequality.aspx?AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1
http://cphpost.dk/opinion/does-denmark-have-a-racism-problem.html
https://www.forbes.com/sites/hbsworkingknowledge/2017/05/03/the-clear-connection-between-slavery-and-american-capitalism/#b788f1e7bd3b
Here is a Wikihow on breaking down racism.
https://www.wikihow.com/Help-Reduce-Racism
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