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Why are Black rappers aligning themselves with the right? | Tayo Bero
(www.theguardian.com)
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this post was submitted on 11 Aug 2023
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Politics
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"Why do members of this oppressed group side with oppressors" is a perennial question, like why are there so many Republican women when Republicans generally are anti-woman...
The answer is usually something like, if you're high on the totem pole in several ways the fact that you're not high on the totem pole in all ways might not matter so much to you.
If you're rich, straight, cis, and male, but not white, you get a lot out of being rich and male and straight and cis, so you may support the group that protects the interests of rich, straight, male people, even though they might not be nice to black people, the fact that you're on the same page on so many other axes means at least they'll usually treat you OK cause you're one of them in so many other ways.
See also: middle class white cis straight women, or Log Cabin republicans, or whatever.
Also: poor white straight cis men.
Agreed on the basic appeal of core values, BUT there is another vector that the article sidesteps: unabashed tokenism. The extreme right knows it has a pretty nasty optics problem. Most of them try to avoid directly referencing white supremacists (even when their staff members give the game away). They all know that they walk in the shadow of a KKK costume. So, what's a nice white politician to do? Get some Black people on stage who will blow right past the obvious racist motivations that has landed them in the limelight. Give them some cheap attention and some easy money. It's a win-win for everyone on stage, that is until the token has worn out their usefulness.
This is pretty much how I see it. Cash can't solve everything, but it sure smoothes out a heck of a lot of bumps along the way. A lot of people will look the other way if they feel they can get something out of you.
Anyone hard right I know is either a bigot, well to do, or both. When you can have a single income family or you're a jerk, many of these issues don't even make it on your radar. They just seem to not exist or be someone else's problem.
I'd also bet the different factors have different influence. My rough, mostly arbitrary order would be:
wealth > whether you're trans > religion > race/ethnicity & sexuality > gender
I'd never thought of it this way. It certainly makes sense to me though, and gives me a new insight.
This is why intersectionality is key and platitudes like "no war but the class war" miss the point entirely (and ignore all the people who are marginalised for reasons other than wealth and class).
Sure, the class war is essential, but without going to war against all other oppression too, you just end up with fucked up and oxymoronic shit like "national" socialism...