The Problem of 'White' Dsa
ROCK
YDSA: Young Democratic Socialists of America
YDSA does good tangible work; they spread word about workers rights and push forward unionization. However, UO’s YDSA internally suffers very clearly from the pitfalls of existing within such a dramatically white location, leading to an ultimate manner of elitist superiority and the propagation of the white leftist.
We talk a lot about white liberals, but not enough about the white leftist. The white leftist often harbors a complex of ideological enlightenment which leads them to believe they are above the frivolities of petty interpersonal discrimination.
It often feels as if they are so busy being swept up in championing against their equal oppression under the capitalist regime that they fail to remember their own sincere level of privilege in society: the privilege of being seen amongst peers; the privilege of mobility and freedom to exist as multifaceted individuals with these ideals of socialism (as opposed to many POC who will get reduced to and derogatorily seen as only that identity); and the privilege of being allowed to be heard as powerful voices of this ideology.
And this place of privilege has resulted in an approach to socialism that is painfully reminiscent of Leninism: the educated elite infiltrating the working class for the pursuit of their communist agenda, and is this really the history that we need to repeat? Though, then again, I would argue that YDSA is not even knowledgeable of communist literature; failing to understand and acknowledge communism’s history of application, and its integral cultural implications in many nonwhite peoples.
I personally am of the opinion that one should have one of two things: a lived experience or a multifaceted breadth of ideological comprehension. However, YDSA seems to lack both, existing with no more depth than an infographic marked “How to Revolution”.
And it must not go unrecognized that communism has most often been pursued by countries of the “global south” that have endeavored to free themselves from the socio-economic clusterfuck caused by western expansion, imperialism, and colonization. Thus YDSA’s lack of recognition of a mangled history that consists of lives lost and defiled due to severe anti-communist sentiment; as well as their failure to acknowledge and revere the people who have triumphed, finally pushing out the perverse penetration of colonial power in their country (though they still remain burdened by its shadows and international stigma); silently reverberates as a tone deaf white-washing of what communism/socialism is.
And this problem is only exacerbated by the enormous whiteness of the room, and their horrible retention of POC. Don’t believe me? Go to one YDSA meeting and count the number of BIPOC in that room. The number will likely not surpass the bounds of your fingers (under the assumption that you have ten), and if it does, certainly not your toes as well. For a group that supports ideals that disproportionally would liberate BIPOC (who overwhelmingly work in jobs proximal to manual labor), they certainly do not represent the demographic at all.