Here’s a fuller critique of the @j_kalla and @micahanglais paper. It merits attention because it advises Democrats to often avoid racial justice frames. @hmcghee @celindalake @JakeMGrumbach @nvalenti11 @Edsall @Prof_Kennedy @michelleinbklyn @jbouie https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/28/opinion/biden-democrats-race-class.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage

To begin, I’ve shared my concerns directly with the authors and they’ve generously agreed to re-run the study. There matters would appropriately rest, but for the media attention—which, in turn, reflects the high stakes over whether Democrats should avoid racial justice.

From the paper's conclusion: "racial framing generally decreases support for progressive policies" and "linking public policies to race is detrimental for support of those policies." (p. 13, paper downloaded 4/26) These conclusory remarks go far beyond what the study can support.

The paper is garnering attention not because its evidence is especially strong. Even the authors conclude that their actual results are statistically weak. (“Overall, we find that the class frame weakly dominates both the race and race-class frames,” page 6).

Rather, it’s garnering attention as ammunition in a civil war that’s been raging among Democrats since Republican dog whistling began in the 1960s. Some Dems urge directly challenging political racism, and more broadly working for racial justice for communities of color.

Others say calls for racial justice alienate white voters. They urge a race-silent approach, typically one that focuses on class. This is NOT a debate between racial justice and economic populism. It’s a debate about whether to address—or instead ignore—racial justice.

By testing “class” or instead “race” frames that Democrats use to promote various policies, Kalla and English stake a place in this debate. Unfortunately, they did so with a paper that is flawed, weak, and likely to engender confusion.

Flawed, because the paper wrongly describes the state of the debate. Since 2017, there’s been good evidence for a fused race-class approach that urges cross-racial solidarity to combat racism as a class weapon that threatens all racial groups. http://Race-class-academy.com 

The race-class approach is now widely familiar—indeed, Kalla himself has previously used this approach, and the first footnote in their paper cites a memo from @justicedems @sunrisemvmt and @DataProgress advocating for it.

https://www.politico.com/f/?id=00000175-b4b4-dc7f-a3fd-bdf660490000

It’s a conspicuous flaw to frame this debate as if there are only two positions—race or instead class—when there’s a prominent third approach. Even as an academic exercise, it's important to accurately describe the state of the debate; all the more so given the real world stakes.

Weak, because the paper tested class and race frames against each other. That’s fine as an academic exercise. But the acid test is beating GOP dog whistling that racializes almost every liberal policy (as when economic populism is routinely painted as benefits for lazy people).

Likely to engender confusion, because the paper also tests what it originally labeled a “race-class” frame and which, after pushback, has been changed to a “class+race” frame. In the paper, this is the class argument plus the race argument. But race-class is not merely additive.

Race-class substantively links racial justice and economic populism: racial division is the main weapon in the class war the rich are winning. It follows that both racial justice and economic populism require a multi-racial progressive movement to defeat dog whistle politicians.

The difference between “class+race” and “race-class” can seem arcane. But it involves a paradigm change: from seeing racism as something that only hurts communities of color to seeing racism against nonwhites as a threat to everyone, whites included.
@hmcghee #TheSumofUsBook

Ultimately, this paper deserves significant pushback because of the high stakes. The GOP today promotes resurgent white nationalism. Daily we experience or watch new horrors of racist violence. The greatest of care should be taken before urging less emphasis on racial justice.