Ralph Nader Podcast: Race and Class

 This podcast was recommended by V4V.

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Distinguished professor of political science, Adolph Reed, joins Ralph to talk about the problem with emphasizing race over class in building effective, long-term coalitions.

Adolph Reed Jr. is a professor of political science at University of Pennsylvania. He is a volunteer on Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign and a co-organizer of Higher Ed for Bernie. He is the author of numerous books and articles dealing with race and class in American society and writes regularly for The New Republic as well as The Nation. He was recently featured in a New York Times article about the cancellation of his speech.

“I don’t understand how as an organizing principle we’re supposed to build the solidarities, the popular base that we need to change the society, to overcome the corrupt institutions, to undermine corporate and capitalist class dominance, if we are to start out from affirmation of all the many ways we might differ. It seems to me it makes more sense to get to where we’re trying to get to, if we start out trying to stress what we have in common.”

Adolph Reed Jr., Political Science Professor at University of Pennsylvania

“Jane McAlevey, longtime organizer and now a sociologist also, makes a crucial distinction between what she calls ‘mobilizing’ and ‘organizing.’ Mobilizing comes down to marshaling the constituency that you have to do stuff. And the focus of organizing is on creating the constituency that you need through deep connections with people. Our work with the Debs-Jones-Douglass Institute in South Carolina… is focused on the premise that we don’t have the base that we need to make the change that we want. We can’t count on a sympathetic ear from the governing elites of whatever party. So, one of the objectives has to be to take the approach of connecting with people who don’t already agree with us to try to broaden the base to make the challenge.”

Adolph Reed Jr., Political Science Professor at University of Pennsylvania