“Black, Black, Black, Black, Black …”

An open and urgent letter to black America

by Alexander Zubatov

“Black, black, black, black, black …”

You know what that is?

That’s what Hillary Clinton is going to do for you. She’s going to say that word as many times as it takes to race-bait her way to the Democratic nomination.

“Black, black, black, black, black …”

You know what else that is? That’s what alienated, disaffected, struggling poor and working-class white people hear when they listen to Hillary Clinton pandering to the black community.

“Black, black, black, black, black …”

And do you know what else that is? It’s the same thing that those same alienated, disaffected, struggling poor and working-class white people hear when they listen to you complaining of all the injustices, whether real or illusory (and which ones are real and which ones illusory is entirely beside the point), that are endured by black people in America. It’s the same thing those same white people hear when they tune in to our national dialogue and hear race and racism constantly the subject of discussion, a discussion in which their own voices are routinely being silenced (as I’ve argued elsewhere, citing empirical evidence in support of the point: https:[email protected][email protected]-98eeea6b6151).

That’s what they hear. You may not like it. But that’s the reality. And that reality has consequences.

I’ll tell you one clear consequence that has a face and a name. His name is Donald Trump. He’s the voice of those alienated, disaffected, struggling poor and working-class white people. You can think of them as closet racists. You can think of them as unreconstructed rednecks. You can think of them as the would-be rank and file of a proto-fascist movement getting ready to rock. It doesn’t matter how you think of them or what you think of them. They know you hate them, or at least, they think you do. And they hate you right back.

The responsibility isn’t yours alone. It’s theirs too, of course. It’s all of ours. And there are phenomena afoot having little to do with you, such as the fear of Islamic terrorism rousing both rational and irrational concerns about immigrants of all sorts. But you’re in a unique position of power right now. You’re driving our national conversation like never before. You’re projecting your message through protests in the streets and on college campuses, through papers in academia, through articles in major publications, through images on the big and small screen and through popular music saturating our radio stations, stores, clubs and bars or coming at us, whether we like it or not, in the middle of the Superbowl. You’re also driving the car on the path to the Democratic nomination. Hillary knows it, and she’s desperate to call dibs on the one free space that’s still available, the one reserved for the backseat driver. And she’ll do anything she can to get that darned seat for herself, because she knows that as soon as she’s sitting snug and comfy, that car and all of you and all of us in it will be all hers. Then she’ll change course. You know she will. She’ll have that car making a sharp right turn. Destination: the dead-end road of neoliberalism. Don’t be surprised if she dumps a few of you, or even most of you (and most of us as well), out in the middle of that road and then speeds right over you to get where she’s going, which is straight into the open arms of corporate America.

“Black, black, black, black, black …”

The more you keep saying it, the more Hillary Clinton keeps echoing you, the more those poor and working-class white people hear it, and the bigger and stronger becomes the black hole into which they’re sinking, into which we’re all sinking.

No need to despair. There’s a clear solution to this conundrum. It starts with realizing that all those alienated, disaffected, struggling poor and working-class white people and all the alienated, disaffected, struggling poor and working-class black people that you care deeply about are, in reality, not all that different. They share a common interest. That interest is in a better, brighter future, one in which economic opportunities abound and the social isolation they now feel gives way to a rich and fulfilling life in thriving communities. They also share a common enemy. That enemy is the plutocracy, the reign of crony capitalism in which corporations are permitted to subvert the free market, buy presidential elections and lobby our— or rather, their — representatives into submission and, as a result, get to profit off of poisoning our food supply, destroying our environment, corrupting our systems of justice, healthcare and education and doing a thousand other things that enrich them at our expense. Those poor and working-class white people don’t like the plutocrats any more than you do, which is why they’re voicing their discontent with the neo-liberal and neo-conservative Republican party establishment and going all-in on the economic populism of Donald Trump.

And there is further good news. When you add up all the members of the poor and working classes of all races, there are a lot more of them than there are of the plutocrats and their allies. In a democracy, numbers mean electoral victories. Electoral victories mean real change. Or, at least, this is the way it’s supposed to work.

There is, of course, a presidential candidate trying to make this theoretical construct come alive in America. His name is Bernie Sanders. Unlike Hillary Clinton, however, there’s something he’s not saying. By now, you might have guessed it:

“Black, black, black, black, black …”

He’s not saying it for a good reason. Though it might get him a few (or even many) more votes, he knows that to say it is to kill any chance for the emergence of a working-class movement composed of a unified front of alienated, disaffected, struggling poor and working-class blacks and whites, joining together to oppose the plutocracy … because as soon as those alienated, disaffected, struggling poor and working-class blacks hear it, they start to huddle together and define themselves as against all those alienated, disaffected, struggling poor and working-class whites, while the latter, also hearing it, start to huddle together and define themselves as against all those alienated, disaffected, struggling poor and working-class blacks, and what we get then is the realization of the writer Céline’s depressing observation: “Poor people never, or hardly ever, ask for an explanation of all they have to put up with. They hate one another, and content themselves with that.” And, with poor and working-class blacks and whites at each others’ throats, no real reform ever occurs, and the plutocrats laugh all the way to the bank.

So there you go: the problem and the solution. We can unite and fight for real change, or we can stay polarized, keep alienated, disaffected, struggling poor and working-class blacks neatly tucked away within the confines of the dead-end neoliberal column of Hillary Clinton and the Democratic party, send alienated, disaffected, struggling poor and working-class whites who were former Democratic party stalwarts fleeing to the newly re-minted proto-fascist Republican party under the aegis of the Donald, and push our society as a whole closer and closer to sinking into that black hole from which it might never emerge. If that’s what you want, the solution is simple. Go ahead … keep on saying it:

“Black, black, black, black, black …”

(If you liked this article, please do me a huge favor by sharing it and/or clicking on the green “recommend” heart below. I very much appreciate it!)

— — — — — — — — — — — -

Alexander Zubatov is a practicing attorney specializing in general commercial litigation. He is also a practicing writer specializing in general non-commercial poetry, fiction, drama, essays and polemics. In the words of one of his intellectual heroes, José Ortega y Gasset, biography is “a system in which the contradictions of a human life are unified.”

Some of his articles have appeared in Acculturated, PopMatters, The Hedgehog Review, The Montreal Review, The Fortnightly Review, New English Review, Culture Wars and nthposition.

He makes occasional, unscheduled appearances on Twitter (https://twitter.com/Zoobahtov).