Joan C. Williams, Columnist

How Democrats Should Be Talking About Race and Class

A colorblind message doesn’t work. Neither does attacking the rich.

October 18, 2019 at 12:00 PM UTC

Joan C. Williams is director of the Equality Action Center and a distinguished professor of law (emerita) at the University of California College of Law, San Francisco.

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An unfortunate pattern is emerging in the way the Democratic presidential candidates talk about race and class: as if never the twain shall meet.

This week’s debate provided a typical example. Race hardly came up at all. Democrats too often ignore race unless directly asked about it. Even then, their discussion often is confined to criminal justice or immigration issues. Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren focus on class, typically by decrying “oligarchs” (to quote Sanders) and the rigged economy. But a pure economic message, new research shows, will lose to the racial-fear message President Donald Trump has honed.