Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
From the acclaimed author of Dog Whistle Politics, an essential road map to neutralizing the role of racism as a divide-and-conquer political weapon and to building a broad multiracial progressive future
"Ian Haney L pez has broken the code on the racial politics of the last fifty years."--Bill Moyers
Today more than ever, we are bombarded with warnings to fear immigrants and people of color. Quite simply, the Right's fundamental strategy has been to divide and distract while rigging the rules to benefit the superrich. No more. It's time for every one of us to reject this kind of purposeful division and to join together to demand that government work for all of us, whether we're white, black, or brown.
Ian Haney L pez has spent the last two years working with a team of racial justice leaders, communications specialists, union activists, and pollsters. Based on conversations and interviews with people all over the country, Haney L pez and his team discovered that a large majority of the population fall into "the persuadable middle"--people who hold both progressive and racist views and who can be shifted in one direction or another based on different messages.
For decades, while the Right has exploited racial fear-mongering, the Left has splintered; some have wanted to tackle racism head-on and others have insisted that a race-silent focus on class avoids alienating white voters. Merge Left distills the heartening results of cutting-edge new research: naming racism as a weapon of the rich and calling for cross-racial solidarity enlists the broad middle in supporting progressive dreams.
A work of deep research, nuanced argument, and urgent insight, Merge Left will be an indispensable tool for the upcoming political season and in the larger fight to build real democracy.