No. I say this because media and those in power have perfected the ability to portray black organizing in a menacing way. And portraying programs that help poor people in racial rather than class terms. So a farmer getting government subsidies or a poor white person getting welfare can be pissed off at “welfare queens” because the latter are associated with being lazy blacks and the former with being down on their luck.
Another thing that the media has perfected is jumping to conclusions about the inner workings of minds like “blacks” and “the white working class”. It was for example simply assumed that Trump was solely boosted by “poor whites”, when in fact it seemed that more affluent, petite bourgoisie whites played a large role in boosting him.
But to the media? Nah, don’t have to look too closely at the seams: just assume that it is the powerful trailer park whites who caused Trump. And then upper-middle class [white] liberals—irony of all ironies—lament the class-unconsciousness of poor whites, simply because the NYT told them that that is how they operate. Oh, but if those materially poor whites would only see some reason; then we could all band together against the 1%.
Don’t count on the upper-middle class to help unify anything or anyone, though. Not post-Occupy Wall Street.
I’m under no illusion that upper middle class want to actually effect change. Upper middle class whites are content to put BLM signs in their yards so long as “they” don’t move into their neighborhoods.
I think though that one should not discount racial politics and media bias as a major contributing factor to why so many poor whites vote against their economic interests. I think LBJ had it right with his quote:
I like how Faulkner put it: In the South they love the man and hate the race and in the North they love the race and hate the man. Desegregation lead to closed pool politics and helped with the decline of union membership. There is definitely an aspect of spite within white politics. To wit: let’s all suffer to keep an undeserving minority from getting something.
Nothing quite like sarcasm whilst making a sweeping, incorrect generalization about what I wrote. LBJ, like all people, had faults but his statements should be assessed on their merits and not discounted simply because of his flaws.