During the fall 2020 semester we will have the quadrennial opportunity to study American politics during a presidential campaign. Combining real-time analysis of the election campaigns, an in-depth study of the relevant historical context, and a lively roster of guest speakers from academics and social movement leaders, this class attempts to provide students with an interdisciplinary introduction to American politics in a time of unprecedented crisis and possibility. The purpose of this class is to illuminate the historical origins of the present crisis while serving as an active laboratory for generating new knowledge about how students engage with electoral politics.
Professor Michael Mark Cohen, Associate Teaching Professor of American Studies and African American Studies
Professor Saru Jayaraman, Assistant Adjunct Professor of Public Policy; Director the Social Movement Center at UC Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy; President, One Fair Wage
1. White supremacy has shaped the United States since its founding.
Our government was designed to maintain the system of slavery to support racial capitalism, not to promote equality and the well-being of the majority of the people. Representation through congress, the senate, and the electoral college, ensured that wealthy slave-owning states would continue to benefit from the suffering of enslaved people.
“To treat the founders as gods, as divine entities, these transcended heroic figures rather than the bourgeois men that they were-- slave-holding men that wrote a document that served their own specific economic interests. They were men creating the government born out of their own flaws as men and their interests as capitalists.” - Professor Michael Cohen
John Trumbull’s 1818 oil painting “Declaration of Independence,” with red dots on the faces of all the men who owned slaves, by Arlen Parsa.
The Senate and the electoral college were designed to heavily favor small states and slave states. This system has proven hard to change over the years. 13 states (containing less than 5% of the US population) have the power to vote down any electoral college amendments.
“The institution of slavery was, for a a quarter millennium, the conversion of human beings into currency, into machines who existed solely for the profit of their owners” --Isabel Wilkerson, Caste.
2. Some Americans have fought for a more equal country since its inception, while others have fought to keep a system that benefits the few.
Strategies to maintain inequality: "dog whistle" politics, voter intimidation and suppression, maintain racial divide
The strategy of dog whistle politics:
"Y'all don't quote me on this. You start out in 1954 by saying, "N----r, n----r, n----r." By 1968 you can't say "n----r"—that hurts you. Backfires. So you say stuff like forced busing, states' rights and all that stuff. You're getting so abstract now [that] you're talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you're talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is [that] blacks get hurt worse than whites. And subconsciously maybe that is part of it. I'm not saying that. But I'm saying that if it is getting that abstract, and that coded, that we are doing away with the racial problem one way or the other." --Republican strategist Lee Atwater in 1981
History of positive change:
Abolitionists, Reconstruction, Civil Rights Movement, labor organization, people in the streets
Labor organizing
“So when we look at the last great depression, people were starting to rise up. People started to protest on the unemployment line. So, there was this mass uprising and people think of FDR as this benign, wonderful, father of the nation who gave us the new deal, the right to a minimum wage, the right to social security, the right to unemployment insurance. But the truth is, all of that was enacted out of fear that there would be a socialist revolution in America, by people, workers rising up across the country.” -- Professor Saru Jayaraman
People in the streets!
"Today, the birth of a new movement against racism and policing is shattering the illusion of a colorblind, postracial United States. Cries of 'Hands up, don’t shoot,' 'I can’t breathe,' and 'Black lives matter' have been heard around the country as tens of thousands of ordinary people mobilize to demand an end to rampant police brutality and murder against African Americans. It is almost always impossible to say when and where a movement will arise, but its eventual emergence is almost always predictable. On a weekly basis, social media brims with stories of police brutalizing ordinary citizens or killing the young, the Black, and—almost always—the unarmed." -- Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation
The more people engage in contentious action over a sustained period of time, the more transformative change becomes possible.
3. We can make things better today by getting involved and continuing to fight for equality.
--> Build a "multi-racial progressive majority." (Ian Haney Lopez)
--> Focus on local politics, not just Presidential elections.
Instead of saying “black women are less likely to get loans,” say “banks are less likely to give loans to black women.” - Rashad Robinson, Color of Change
"Who freed the slaves? The slaves freed the slaves. Emancipation wasn’t a gift bestowed on the slaves; it was something they took for themselves, the culmination of their long struggle for freedom, which began as soon as chattel slavery was established in the 17th century, and gained even greater steam with the Revolution and the birth of a country committed, at least rhetorically, to freedom and equality." - Jamelle Bouie, Why Juneteenth Matters, The New York Times
--> Get rid of the electoral college
--> Remove that which honors slavery and racism
--> Get involved.
Follow the change-makers, participate in postcard writing campaigns, text banking, etc.
You can start by following our amazing Guest Speakers!
Aimee Allison, Founder and President of She The People, a national network elevating the voice and power of women of color.
Michael Omi, Professor of Ethnic Studies, specializing in Comparative Racialization, Racial Theory and Politics, Racial/Ethnic Classification and Identity. Associate Director of UCB’s Othering and Belonging Institute.
Rashad Robinson, President of Color of Change, a leading racial justice organization driven by more than 7 million members who are building power for Black communities.
Alicia Garza, Principal at Black Futures Lab, an organization that works with Black people to transform our communities, building Black political power and changing the way that power operates—locally, statewide, and nationally. Co-creator of Black Lives Matter, whose mission is to eradicate white supremacy and build local power to intervene in violence inflicted on Black communities by the state and vigilantes.
Judith Le Blanc, Director of Native Organizers’ Alliance, a training and organizing network dedicated to building the capacity of Native tribes, traditional societies, and community groups to make transformational change.
Matt Nelson, Executive Director at Alianza Presente.org, the nation’s largest online Latinx organizing group; advancing social justice with technology, media, and culture.
Ian Haney Lopez, Director, Racial Politics Project, UCB’s Othering and Belonging Institute; Chief Justice Earl Warren Professor of Public Law, with a specialization in race and constitutional law.
Rigel Robinson, Berkeley City Council Member
An afterthought...
Check out all of our course lectures at UCTV.
Presentation by Susan Hagstrom, Krista Meyer, Setareh Sarrafan, Judy Stern, and Brianne Tabios
Credits:
Created with an image by Wokandapix - "vote word letters"