Longtime Democratic strategist James Carville went after his own party’s "wokeness" during an interview published Tuesday.
Carville slammed the "jargon-y language" he said is being used by some in the party to talk how everyday voters don’t, arguing it undermines the party’s ability to beat Republicans.
Vox began the interview by asking Carville what he made of President Biden’s first 100 days in office, to which Carville responded that it was "difficult to find something to complain about."
Carville went on to say that Biden isn’t into "faculty lounge" politics, which he described as when "people in faculty lounges in fancy colleges use a different language than ordinary people."
"They come up with a word like ‘LatinX’ that no one else uses. Or they use a phrase like ‘communities of color.’ I don’t know anyone who speaks like that. I don’t know anyone who lives in a ‘community of color.’ I know lots of white and Black and brown people and they all live in ... neighborhoods," Carville said.
Vox asked Carville if language was the problem or if people just didn’t want to hear about "race and racial injustice."
"We have to talk about race. We should talk about racial injustice. What I’m saying is, we need to do it without using jargon-y language that’s unrecognizable to most people — including most Black people, by the way — because it signals that you’re trying to talk around them. This ‘too cool for school’ s--t doesn’t work, and we have to stop it," Carville said.
Writer Sean Illing said it sounded like Carville had a "problem with ‘wokeness.’"
"Wokeness is a problem and everyone knows it. It’s hard to talk to anybody today — and I talk to lots of people in the Democratic Party — who doesn’t say this. But they don’t want to say it out loud," Carville said, before stating people are worried they’ll get "clobbered or canceled" if they speak out.
Carville slammed the "jargon-y language" he said is being used by some in the party to talk how everyday voters don’t, arguing it undermines the party’s ability to beat Republicans.
Vox began the interview by asking Carville what he made of President Biden’s first 100 days in office, to which Carville responded that it was "difficult to find something to complain about."
Carville went on to say that Biden isn’t into "faculty lounge" politics, which he described as when "people in faculty lounges in fancy colleges use a different language than ordinary people."
"They come up with a word like ‘LatinX’ that no one else uses. Or they use a phrase like ‘communities of color.’ I don’t know anyone who speaks like that. I don’t know anyone who lives in a ‘community of color.’ I know lots of white and Black and brown people and they all live in ... neighborhoods," Carville said.
Vox asked Carville if language was the problem or if people just didn’t want to hear about "race and racial injustice."
"We have to talk about race. We should talk about racial injustice. What I’m saying is, we need to do it without using jargon-y language that’s unrecognizable to most people — including most Black people, by the way — because it signals that you’re trying to talk around them. This ‘too cool for school’ s--t doesn’t work, and we have to stop it," Carville said.
Writer Sean Illing said it sounded like Carville had a "problem with ‘wokeness.’"
"Wokeness is a problem and everyone knows it. It’s hard to talk to anybody today — and I talk to lots of people in the Democratic Party — who doesn’t say this. But they don’t want to say it out loud," Carville said, before stating people are worried they’ll get "clobbered or canceled" if they speak out.
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