I don’t even think that statement is true. The book was written in the 80s? Even Sakai admits that material conditions have changed since then. To hyper simplify, the book argues that a large segment of the white population has been bought off, which is petty unarguable. Historically, whites have actively tried to push him whites out of the best jobs, which Sakai footnotes like hell. I don’t think anyone can debate the second part. Lastly, a lot, but not all, white left movements in the US were pretty reactionary with race. The most obvious would be Bacon’s Rebellion. The left used to uphold that as some sort of cross class revolution movement. Sakai was ahead of his time, now we all know that it was about stealing indigenous land and owning more slaves.
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I don’t even think that statement is true. The book was written in the 80s? Even Sakai admits that material conditions have changed since then. To hyper simplify, the book argues that a large segment of the white population has been bought off, which is petty unarguable. Historically, whites have actively tried to push him whites out of the best jobs, which Sakai footnotes like hell. I don’t think anyone can debate the second part. Lastly, a lot, but not all, white left movements in the US were pretty reactionary with race. The most obvious would be Bacon’s Rebellion. The left used to uphold that as some sort of cross class revolution movement. Sakai was ahead of his time, now we all know that it was about stealing indigenous land and owning more slaves.