There are segments of the population that are inherently radicalized, however they are radicalized specifically in a way to distrust leftists, particularly white leftists because of their general lack of long-term political commitment, and particularly in well organized Latino and African-American (in particular recent Somali) communities. They have their own radical traditions, and it is imperative to be sympathetic to those movements and synthesize yours into their efforts, which have likely been going on for decades.

Yeah, this is what I was thinking of lol. I’m Black, and I personally had some of that distrust that prevented me from becoming a leftist sooner. If I hadn’t studied the Panthers, no way some white person would’ve convinced me, and I’m pretty sure it still informs a lot of my ideas, particularly since we have been stabbed in the back for the thinnest slice of pie by previous labor movements. But my organizing experience has generally been that white leftists have nearly wholly given up trying to convince Black folk, at least in my area, which has several nearly purely Black communities, or Black dominant ones. That’s also ignoring the general lack of familiarity with black radicalism by white folks in orgs (Then just about all of the black members have read, or at least own and are reading damn near all the same black radical books, having decided to read them completely independently).

I just guess I find myself cynical because I don’t know how white folk finna synthesize anything when they don’t have any familiarity with half of what they’re synthesizing.