Debates.

There has been a massive debate among the New York Times' 1619 Project creator Nikole Hannah-Jones and the site World Socialist Web Site (WSWS). The WSWS promotes a view called class reductionism. That means that all forms of oppression is a result of class forces causing these things to occur (they feel that capitalism primarily contributed to the rise of racism, sexism, etc. That's silly as sexism existed since the start of human history long before modern capitalism was created. Racism has existed long before the Maafa) in order to divide workers of all backgrounds against each other. While class issues are very important on why things are why they are, a class majority approach is limited for many reasons. Many racists are poor, eliminating classism won't eliminate sexism or racism, and systematic oppression is not just a product of class. It is also a product of international forces of racism, xenophobia, and other structural injustices.

Statistics prove that racial discrimination is not just an individual or class affair. It disproportionately harms black Americans in America from job opportunities, school suspensions, and to the criminal justice system. That is why I don't agree with class reductionism, but class issues are very important to recognize and understand in order to get things done. You can't ignore class, and you can't ignore the issue of race either. WSWS criticizes Sister Hannah-Jones, because WSWS believes that she wants to condemn white people collectively, and they believe that she maintains that the DNA of America is very virtue of it existence irredeemable.

Nikole Hannah-Jones has criticized WSWS as misinterpreting her position. It is obvious that Nikole Hannah-Jones doesn't believe that America is irreversibly unchangeable. She said that black people in America contributed heavily in enhancing democracy which is true. She believes that black people have experienced an unique, specific form of white racism including slavery (like being stripped of our culture, creeds, languages, and social mores via being kidnapped thousands of miles from Africa to the Americas, Asia, etc.) that can only be eliminated by systematic change. She is right on that position. On certain details, people have the right to critique her analysis (especially on the issue of imperialism), but I don't believe that she is insincere in her goal in trying to outline the imperfections of American history. I disagree with some of the views of historian James M. McPherson on his views of abolitionism. McPherson equated abolitionism with racial egalitarianism when many white abolitionists didn't believe in equality for black people. Some of them hated just slavery. Some didn't want women to have equal rights. Other abolitionists believed in racial equality like Frederick Douglas and Sojouner truth. McPherson ignores the fact that even after the Civil War, Lincoln didn't want universal suffrage for black people, but only a select number of black people given the right to vote. McPherson didn't read all of the 1619 Project, but he skimmed it.

For WSWS to assume that she or Hannah-Jones is some puppet of middle class Democrats to advance some racialist narrative to divide Americans is highly wrong and inappropriate. Nikole Hannah-Jones never wrote about any biological basis for racism either. The biggest slander against her is that some accuse her of saying that racism has a genetic basis, which isn't the case at all. Outlining the truth about racism is real. Diminishing the impact of racism and economic oppression among African Americans (and assuming it is just mostly an example of class issues) as done by many class reductionists is an affront to history. For example, the Great Migration included millions of black people escaping the South for better economic opportunities (that is a class issue), but many African Americans in the North experienced racism, discrimination, and other injustices (which is a race issue). While the 1619 Project does merit legitimate critique in certain issues, I don't view Sister Nikole Hannah-Jones as some bigot who wants tensions. Also, WSWS has criticized the Metoo movement collectively as violating the concept of due process (which is silly), and they defend the perverted criminal Polanski See, I know my tea now. WSWS is a sectarian group that claims that anyone that deviates from their views is somehow not a true revolutionary. That is incorrect as socialists and non-socialists alike can be just as dedicated to freedom as anyone else. WSWS's glamorization of outright slave owners, racists, and abusers like Washington and Jefferson outlines their goal.

They or people in the WSWS want class determinism to be the order of the day instead of realizing that life is complex and intersectional. Not even Lenin or Trotsky believed in class reductionism. It is a historical fact that European imperialism plundered the non-European world, instituted the Maafa, organized the genocide of the indigenous peoples ,and carried out other crimes that WSWS has minimized. I do believe that she sincerely wants a discussion in favor of social justice. It is also important to mention that combating racism must be done by combating imperialism as Malcolm X has mentioned (you have to unite African Americans with Africans along with everyone in the African Diaspora. You have to unite the oppressed people of the world to solve problems). My words to Nikole Hannah-Jones are the following: Continue to Keep your head up.


Today , more people are sincerely criticizing the Chinese government for it detention of the Uyghur mostly Muslim people. Chinese' leaders are mostly atheists, and many of Chinese leaders are trying to force the Uyghurs against their wills to embrace China's policies. The brutal detention centers and the harsh treatment against the Uyghurs are unjustified. This is happening in the western province of Xinjang. The recent passage of the backing of the Hong Kong protesters is real. We have to be careful too. We should support democratic rights and freedom. Yet, many war hawks and neo-cons are exploiting the legitimate concerns about Chine's anti-democratic record as an excuse to promote more militaristic tensions in China. While we condemn the CCP's imperfections and authoritarianism, we are equally opposed to American detention of immigrants, the mass incarceration state (that has ruined lives for generations), and the police brutality in America.

There is a distinction between corruption found in Chinese leadership (which isn't even enacting socialism, but Han chauvinism and other forms of revisionism) and the majority of American and Chinese people who want freedom and justice in the world. Western China has a lot of resources that the West wants and what China desires to maintain. It is no secret that CIA fronts like the National Endowment for Democracy of the NED desires China to be made in America's image. I don't agree with that premise. America shouldn't be the policeman of the whole world. Chinese working class people and freedom loving people in China have every right to change China for the better on their own accords. Likewise, many great Americans are doing the right thing and fighting for truth too.



By Timothy