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Look, a lot of folks (myself included) explicitly arguing for racial justice *know* and have *known* and routinely explain to others that telling the public that a policy disproportionately benefits people of color (or immigrants) generally will reduce overall support for it. 1/5
That's been true for as long as political scientists have studied it. The question now is whether it's worth any immediate downsides to explicitly and gradually attempt to convince the American people that they should support racial justice. 2/5
I love polling and political science, and we should monitor the responsiveness of people to new messages. But, it's not as though opponents of racial justice won't prime people to think about the disproportionate benefits of progressive economic policies to people of color. 3/5
For generations, we have made far too little progress--and accomplished even that progress far too slowly. So, it's reasonable for people to think that downplaying race in the face of opponents emphasizing it wasn't working out well--for either racial or economic justice. 4/5
We can't change opponents, but we can try a different approach ourselves. There is no doubt that elite signaling changes opinions. In this case, the potential payoff in persuasion likely will come only after significant effort over years. 5/5
