People of color — whether welfare recipients or immigrants — are routinely characterized in the United States as shiftless, even parasitic, and not deserving of the social supports of the state. Ethnic Studies scholar Daniel Martinez HoSang argues that in recent years, as the social safety net has been chopped away, the right has branded white working class people with the same racially-charged language of being parasites on the state. He discusses the complexities of how racial categories are reworked, as well as the appeal of the far right for some people of color and the presence of people of color in the leadership of some far groups.

Resources:

Daniel Martinez HoSang and Joseph E. Lowndes, Producers, Parasites, Patriots Race and the New Right-Wing Politics of Precarity University of Minnesota Press, 2019

Joe Lowndes, Daniel Martinez HoSang, “Will a More Dangerous Far Right Spring From the Corpse of Trumpism?” Common Dreams, January 12, 2021

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