[Marxism] Do America’s Socialists Have a Race Problem? | The New Republic

[Louis Proyect]

I held off on reading this article since the internal life of the DSA 
just doesn't interest me that much but when I saw Adolph Reed 
intervening, I decided to read it:

https://newrepublic.com/article/152789/americas-socialists-race-problem

The gist of it is that the DSA is having trouble attracting people of 
color because it is class reductionist.

Reed jumped into the fray here:

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2018/12/23/which-side-are-you

Reed, of course, is closely connected to Walter Benn Michaels who wrote 
a book titled "The Trouble With Diversity". I think that both of them 
are a throwback to the days of Eugene V. Debs when socialists had little 
interest in independent Black action, if not seeing it as a diversion. 
The CPUSA continued in this tradition, of course, after a brief fling 
with the Black Belt, a problematic policy with some good aspects.

I'll probably try to find time to put in my own two cents although 
neither side in this debate meshes with my own. My take on this owes a 
lot to George Breitman and Bob Desverney who wrote some great stuff in 
the 1960s when Black nationalism was a major force in American politics.