Aug 24, 2020
Healing a Political Party: Zerlina Maxwell’s The End of White Politics
Zerlina Maxwell’s new book, The End of White Politics: How to Heal Our Liberal Divide, is a breath of fresh air in these times of despair. The title of the book is intriguing and can cause a kneejerk reaction for some, but for others, it evokes a sigh of relief. The physical copy of the book feels accessible. The book has a gravitational force from the title to its contents, and finally, it’s aesthetic. I found myself thinking about the End of White Politics while reading other books. The book is deeply insightful, relevant, prophetic, filled with facts, truth, and stories of white male Bernie supporters yelling Boo! Boo! Shrill! At a Black woman on a panel who’s highly intelligent and brings straight facts to every political issue.
Zerlina Maxwell is an MSNBC analyst, and a co-host of the SiriusXM show Signal Boost with Jess Mcintosh. She graduated from Tufts University and Rutgers school of law. Maxwell worked on both Barack Obama’s and Hilary Clinton’s campaigns; she understands the problems that deepen the chasm within the Democratic party. Through an introduction, eight cohesive chapters, and a conclusion, she answers how to heal the liberal divide that caused the Donald Trump victory in 2016; diversity.
The thesis the book is this; if the Democratic party wants to win the 2020 election and any election beyond, they need to recognize the worth and value of the people they think they don’t need. America’s demographic is shifting, and the Republican party is well aware of this; that is why they are suppressing the minority vote through voter ID laws and gerrymandering. But the Democratic party needs an “all-inclusive identity politics because the old system isn’t going to be sustainable with our new emerging majority.” That new majority encompasses race, gender, class, and other labels. Maxwell says, “To build the future, progressives should coalesce around different identities and see where opportunities exist to use that to inform our policymaking and platform. It’s all about creating a movement that acknowledges the need for specific policy goals while moving towards a more equitable future. The days of having only old white men represent a diverse population that includes mostly women is soon to be a relic of the past…” I was shaking at this point in the book.
Zerlina Maxwell is a progressive Black woman who’s brilliant and doesn’t mind critiquing the Democratic party for its racism and misogyny from the past and contemporary times. But she provides tools and a behind the scenes trailer for healing that divide. She reveals the blind spots throughout the book, and I must say she is right.
The White Resistance and In Black Women We Trust are the two most transformational chapters in the book.
Listen up! This book is required reading for all. Please purchase this book and go out and vote.
Purchase The End of White Politics Here : https://www.amazon.com/End-White-Politics-Liberal-Divide/dp/0306873613/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8
Photo from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zerlina_Maxwell
