But I think what this understanding of solidarity misses is
the ways that we are all affected by systems of domination. We are all created
in and through those systems, and we are all worse off because they exist.
Let’s take white supremacy for instance. I’m a white
Ashkenazi Jew, I inhabit and hold white-skin privilege and all that entails.
Even though I am on a life-long journey of unlearning and opposing white
supremacy, growing up in a white supremacist world has effects so foundational
as to be nearly imperceptible to me. This is what it means, in a certain sense,
to believe in a materialist account of the world – the organisation of the
world shapes and makes us, even against our desires (and of course, it even
makes and shapes our desires). Being made in and through a white supremacist
world, no matter how committed I may be to undoing and unlearning it, still
means that I have been damaged by white supremacy. Fanon, for example, was very
clear about this: benefitting from systems of exploitation and oppression,
being made in and through those systems, degrades our humanity. So when I think
about undoing white supremacy, I am not committed to that fight only on behalf
of others. I am not outside this fight or this system. I am also a part of it.
Marxism and Intersectionality: An Interview with Ashley
Bohrer
by George Souvlis and Ashley Bohrer | May 28, 2020
