"Please stop saying working class white people “vote against their interests” when they side w/ racism. That perspective refuses to acknowledge material benefits these folks obtain by preserving a white supremacist system. They don't want racial equality or economic competition.
I think this is an important point that socialists need make to white people and workers. While I'm not a class reductionist, I do think the case must be made that socializing the economy and moving away from capitalism will benefit all workers by not restricting opportunities and forcing greater competition with others, but rather allowing us to eliminate bullshit jobs, reducing working hours and shorting the work week, and provide a good life for everyone. Because under the current system, gains made for BIPOC and women economically and politically will negatively impact white workers, and I think that fear is one of the reasons they vote Republican and for people like Trump. They want to protect their jobs and wages from the threat they see in immigrant labourers, equal opportunity and pay for BIPOC, women, etc.
This should only be a short-term strategy, though, for immediate electoral victories and the implementation of socialist economic policies because the problem of things like racism, sexism, etc. will still be present. Things like racism still needs to be acknowledged and uprooted, and BIPOC still need equitable economic and political power. But because capitalism depends so much upon production for profit and competition among workers, which benefits capital and gives rise to a great deal of inequality, workers see each other as competitors and enemies, battling for the two slices of pie left for them after capital takes the other eight.
In essence, I see the argument for and push to socialize the economy as just a part of the hard but necessary struggle to end white supremacy. Such economic policies can potentially act as a tool that may help lessen the material fears and economic dynamics that motivate many white people to support systems of white supremacy and racial inequality, which then could potentially promote class solidarity and help unify workers against capital rather than each other.
While this may be idealistic, I think it's worth a shot because white people make up about 70% of the population and voted for Trump in record numbers, and even more POC voted for Trump this time around that last, so I think Democrats need to start trying something different by taking a page from socialist playbooks. Obviously, moderating their platform and pandering to conservative Republicans was a failed strategy. I say this because more Republicans voted for Trump this election than last, and Democrats had pretty disappointing down-ballot results. And one of the many reasons I think this could help put a wedge between white America and white supremacy as embodied by the Republican Party electorally is the success of a $15 minimum wage in conservative Florida (which also voted to restore voting right to felons in 2018).
More liberal areas like Seattle have passed $15 minimum measures, and the fact that a conservative state like Florida can as well, combined with the popularity of universal programs like universal healthcare and education, offer a door for the left and the Democratic Party if it were to adopt even more left-leaning, working-class friendly policies to larger electoral victories. And that could possibly set the stage for even more expansive socialist policies and programs that I believe would undercut much of the fear that keeps white America up at night. And I think this strategy would be much better and more successful than trying to match a more socially-liberal equivalent to what the Republicans offer, because you're not going to beat them at their own game. How many elections do they have to win or almost win for people to see that?
To combat the power of racism and white supremacy, you have to not only change people’s minds but the material conditions and institutions that reproduce these racist biases, barriers, and outcomes. You have to physically dismantle the socio-economic supports for things like racism and white supremacy as well as the internalized beliefs and fears that express themselves electorally.
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