> A large majority of white folks in suburbs are politically clueless.
>
> CONCLUSION
>
> White leftists, go suburban! That's where you are needed.
A good point, but a bit over-simplistic.
"A large majority of Blacks in cities are already on the Left on key issues, who do not need any political education from self-conscious white leftists."
They may support the Democrats and lean liberal on many issues, but in my experience, urban African-Americans can be far more conservative and reactionary than you would expect. I think that the level of radical political consciousness is low across the spectrum of Americans. There is probably more of it out there than radicals think, but we aren't exactly doing much to motivate them to action.
There is something to be said for white radicals talking to white suburbanites, but why should we reduce our work to segregated types of radicalism?
It's also much harder to do radical activism in the suburbs. Just look at the infrastructure costs. Radicals in East Coast and West Coast cities are looking at sky high rents if they want to rent an office in the burbs for their political organization. Here in Johnson County, I could rent an office for $250-300 a month. But I'm having a hard time just raising money to bottomline paying for a $150/month rent for an office in a run-down bulding in KCMO.
I think there is much potential for the promotion of radical ideas in Midwest suburbia, but we kind of need more people and money. We also have to deal with a brain drain of younger activists who leave town for Seattle, San Francisco, L.A., Portland and other glamorous places.
Chuck