Class and Race: Two Sides, Same Coin

Republicans must focus on race. Attention must also be paid to class.

Two op-eds by two center-right writers has me thinking about the intersection of race and class in America.

Unlike a lot of other nations, we tend to be more focused on race. Also, unlike a lot of other nations, we want to believe that class divisions don’t exist. Ross Douthat started things off by his critique of the political strategists that lead the Lincoln Project and how they tend to look down on lower-class whites. Bruce Bartlett came to the Lincoln Project’s defense, affirming the racial animus that strategist Stuart Stevens believes animated the party since the 1960s.

Sometimes our focus on race can cause us to ignore how class operates in America.

I am an African American and when people see me, they see that I am a black man. What they don’t see is that I grew up in a working-class household of two autoworkers. When we think of African Americans class distinction is never really thought about. Even though there is a black working class, people see African Americans as a race and don’t think about economic factors that might differentiate African Americans from one another.

When we do think of class, it is presented in racial terms. When I say, “working…