Well not really Will. It doesnt rebut that Black people are dispro killed by police relative to whites. It might put that in economic context but it doesn’t rebut it. If Black people are dispro poor (which you admit is linked to the history of racism of course) then they will be dispro at risk in large part because of that. Whether it’s strictly police racism, or a combination of racism and their obvious role as class enforcers, the dispro impact is the same.
It doesn’t mean BLM is not a valid slogan, either.
Any number of high profile cases were NOT of poor Black people. Elijah McLain, not poor, Philando Castile, not poor, John Crawford III, not poor, Sandra Bland not poor. Botham Jean not poor, etc. Notice, none of your sources actually mention any cases where they identify actual victims as poor…not one. The articles you cite that claim the relationship is about poverty are looking at neighborhood demographics as I recall, and saying the killings and/or shootings are dispro in lower income census tracts.
But what you (and your sources) ignore is that middle class Black folks dispro live in low income census tracts because of racism in housing markets.
Indeed, middle class Blacks are more likely to live in such places than POOR whites are. So when cops dispro kill Black people, even when unarmed and not attacking, they are not simply killing them because they are poor. They see Black as particularly dangerous.
Do they presume danger ALSO because the neighborhood in poor or lower income in some cases? Oh sure. But a) that isn’t independent of their racism when the two have long been linked, and b) to the extent middle class and non poor Black folks are locked in those spaces, that is about racism…so even if the cops are only gunning for people they THINK are poor, with no racial bias (and even you wouldn’t say that, surely), the larger systemic problems will dispro expose Black people to harm regardless of their actual SES.
Black life is still devalued in other arenas too, regardless of class status in any number of ways.
Upper middle class Black folks have worse health outcomes than POOR whites, for reasons of unequal care, the effects of racism, etc, even when they have health care access, decent jobs and college degrees. Poor whites are less likely to be suspended from school than affluent Black kids and upper middle class black kids, etc (all this I discuss in my book Colorblind). In other words, Black people are not merely harmed because of class status.
This kind of argument is why people accuse you of soft pedaling racism Will. It isn’t necessary to shit on BLM to make a strong class argument. The fact that you think it is more helpful to go after 1619 Project authors and Derrick Bell than the fascist forces endangering us all is just weird. It would be like me spending all my time attacking the folks at Jacobin in every article…just totally unhelpful to the work that needs to be done.
