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I live in a diverse neighborhood, as diversity is typically imagined or described by upper-income Democrats in the US. The median single-family house costs around $500,000. We have Jewish neighbors, black neighbors, hispanic neighbors. There's plenty of LGBT rainbow flags. We voted nearly 3:1 for Biden over Trump. And we display lots of yard signs that say stuff like this:
What's missing, however, is any reference to either working class people or people living in poverty. Nothing about a $15/hour minimum wage, nothing about union membership, nothing about providing economic equity -- such as affordable housing, health care, education, food, transportation, or child care.
The working class people who visit our neighborhood to clean our houses (all hispanic women) or work on our yards (all hispanic men) might take comfort that we're not going to ask them for their immigration papers or citizenship documents as they toil for us. But we're not obviously concerned about how much they're paid or what their living conditions are or where their kids go to school. Our assertions that you are not illegal are enough, according to us.
This is how "diversity" works in upper-income Democratic precincts. We publicly pledge our support to any upper-income people who can afford to live here, no matter their identities, so long as they're 'kind" like we are. We promise not to throw the workers who visit our neighborhood into detention centers (good workers are hard enough to find already). But we're not going to address the economic inequalities that allow us to bid up the house prices in our neighborhood to levels that our maids and lawn care dudes will never afford.
This de facto economic segregation remains the final frontier in Democratic politics. Some, like the Bernie supporters, are ready to start dismantling the walls between rich and poor in the US by providing higher wages and more universal benefits. Meanwhile, the more moderate Biden supporters and the Democratic Senate aren't ready yet to share the wealth with the poor and working classes. Oh, they stuffed a lot of temporary goodies into the "COVID Relief" bill, but no lasting changes to the tax, wage, or benefit structures. President Biden stands for: borrowing a bunch of money from rich people to send out one-time chunks of cash to everybody, to distract us from our various culture wars and overall suckitude. But then, won't we have to pay that money back after the crisis is over?
There's probably not a lot more Democrats can do with Senator Manchin of West Virginia as their swing vote -- I'm skeptical that Biden's upcoming $3 trillion "infrastructure plan" is going anywhere, and the Senate filibuster will ensure nothing else the Democratic House passes will become law: whether immigration reform, higher wages, climate change remedies, or voting rights protections. But from the yard signs in my neighborhood, most upper-income Democrats are satisfied to leave economic inequality alone. "Kindness" is all we need to address the gap between rich and poor. Kindness is Everything.
- Black Lives Matter
- Women's Rights are Human Rights
- No Human Being is Illegal
- Science is Real
- Love is Love
- Kindness is Everything
What's missing, however, is any reference to either working class people or people living in poverty. Nothing about a $15/hour minimum wage, nothing about union membership, nothing about providing economic equity -- such as affordable housing, health care, education, food, transportation, or child care.
The working class people who visit our neighborhood to clean our houses (all hispanic women) or work on our yards (all hispanic men) might take comfort that we're not going to ask them for their immigration papers or citizenship documents as they toil for us. But we're not obviously concerned about how much they're paid or what their living conditions are or where their kids go to school. Our assertions that you are not illegal are enough, according to us.
This is how "diversity" works in upper-income Democratic precincts. We publicly pledge our support to any upper-income people who can afford to live here, no matter their identities, so long as they're 'kind" like we are. We promise not to throw the workers who visit our neighborhood into detention centers (good workers are hard enough to find already). But we're not going to address the economic inequalities that allow us to bid up the house prices in our neighborhood to levels that our maids and lawn care dudes will never afford.
This de facto economic segregation remains the final frontier in Democratic politics. Some, like the Bernie supporters, are ready to start dismantling the walls between rich and poor in the US by providing higher wages and more universal benefits. Meanwhile, the more moderate Biden supporters and the Democratic Senate aren't ready yet to share the wealth with the poor and working classes. Oh, they stuffed a lot of temporary goodies into the "COVID Relief" bill, but no lasting changes to the tax, wage, or benefit structures. President Biden stands for: borrowing a bunch of money from rich people to send out one-time chunks of cash to everybody, to distract us from our various culture wars and overall suckitude. But then, won't we have to pay that money back after the crisis is over?
There's probably not a lot more Democrats can do with Senator Manchin of West Virginia as their swing vote -- I'm skeptical that Biden's upcoming $3 trillion "infrastructure plan" is going anywhere, and the Senate filibuster will ensure nothing else the Democratic House passes will become law: whether immigration reform, higher wages, climate change remedies, or voting rights protections. But from the yard signs in my neighborhood, most upper-income Democrats are satisfied to leave economic inequality alone. "Kindness" is all we need to address the gap between rich and poor. Kindness is Everything.
