Let’s Talk About South Carolina
Bernie Sanders didn’t lose because of the “black vote,” but winning places like South Carolina is crucial to building a left majority.
Cedric Johnson is associate professor of African American studies and political science at the University of Illinois at Chicago and editor of The Neoliberal Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, Late Capitalism and the Remaking of New Orleans (University of Minnesota Press, 2011).
Bernie Sanders didn’t lose because of the “black vote,” but winning places like South Carolina is crucial to building a left majority.
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Mainstream outlets are claiming the mounting coronavirus crisis in New Orleans is the result of cultural practices like Mardi Gras. That’s nonsense — it’s a consequence of deep class divides and decimated public health infrastructure.
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The reparations demand resides largely in the realm of the political imaginary. There are more effective means of fighting oppression.
Why did Bernie Sanders lose in South Carolina, and what does it mean going forward?
The reparations demand survives as a parlor debate — it cannot address the real needs and interests of black workers.