It's taken me too long to recognize how smart Joy Reid is, perhaps because she speaks without flash. At the moment I suspect that she is the most insightful commentator on MSNBC. Reid has a book out. I haven't managed to get a copy yet, but I saw her interviewed for an hour, much of it on the differences between what she called "white liberals" and "black liberals."
My notion of her view oversimplifies it, but here goes. The white left works to improve the lives of all poor people, including African Americans, through support for measures like raising the minimum wage. The black left supports raising the minimum wage but is much more focused on challenging the New Jim Crow that kills African Americans or stunts their opportunities. That's the divide. Think Bernie Sanders and Black Lives Matter.
Both sides are right. It's obvious that some in the white left think the black left is right, and some in the black left think the white left is right. There is a war of words going on in magazines and journals and on the 'net. We can hope that some people will be able to span the gap and pull the two groups together.
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