MSNBC political analyst and certified practitioner of Black Girl Magic™️ Zerlina Maxwell bears down on the broken and outdated political framework of the United States Democratic party in her scathing and eye-opening book The End of White Politics: How to Heal Our Liberal Divide. She dismantles the argument against identity politics, takes "Bernie Bros," billionaires, and those benefiting from a system built on white privilege to task, and underlines the need to amplify the political voices of minorities in order to successfully make progress within the party. Maxwell's central argument is that Democrats need to shift their attention and stop giving so much of it to old crusty-ass rich white dudes—not just in which candidates are supported but also in which voters are catered to the most—and instead focus that attention on both candidates and voters that are women and people of color, especially Black women, as that voting block is instrumental in running successful and productive campaigns and candidates.

Let me start this review by stating that I identify politically as Independent. The Democratic party is way too embarrassing for me to subscribe to. It is full of corporate shills and is a party willing to compromise when the party across the aisle is not, oftentimes to the detriment of the constituents who most rely on the party in the first place. Compromise is important and a necessary part of the political process, but standing your ground is also important, especially when it comes to the issues that have been plaguing our country and its minority peoples in recent years. Democrats will bend over backwards to reach a compromise with Republicans, but moderate Dems and progressive Dems couldn't collaborate or compromise within their own party to save their lives. A good majority of Democrats in power are weak and their actions are milquetoast. They stand for nothing and accomplish little all while wearing a Kabuki mask meant to show their social liberalism and big hearts. You have politicians like Dianne Feinstein, Chuck Schumer, Joe Manchin and Nancy Pelosi who have no idea what it's like to be Black, brown, disabled, queer, poor, or any of the other identities that make life more difficult for the very constituents that voted these politicians in and gave them their support.

That being said, I do consider myself extremely liberal. I was a huge supporter of Bernie's in both of his campaigns. And because of that, I had to try really hard not to take Maxwell's attacks on Bernie and his supporters personally. I really had to try to listen to what this woman was saying, especially because she is Black and I am white and I need to hear her perspective without asserting my own. It's imperative for all white people to second-guess our personal beliefs within the scope of our privilege. I will admit that she exposed some of my blind spots to me, and for that, I am grateful. In both the 2016 and 2020 election cycles, I was so wrapped up in the money in politics issue that I let the issues that Black people are currently facing fall to the wayside, not consciously, but that's Maxwell's exact point. I thought that my candidate cared about that and prioritized it, but never realized that maybe it was less of a priority than it ought to be. My privilege allows me to unconsciously let the issues that oftentimes mean life or death for Black people and other minority races be lower on the priority list in my life because I am not directly affected, but that's not who I want to be. A safe, clean, comfortable world for everyone should be and now is my top priority.

However, I do feel that Maxwell was overly biased in a lot of her points and often left out relevant context so that she could make her point (hmmm... sounds like politics to me!). She was very biased against Bernie and did little to acknowledge the work and policies he has helped to implement that support people of color. And his supporters know that he has never wavered on his support, which has been proven by his record and actions for over 50 years now. So for her to lift up Doug Jones as an example of a "good" ally but say that Bernie isn't one is just preposterous. She posits that minorities don't support Bernie, but the only minority groups who didn't overwhelmingly support him over Hillary in the 2016 primaries were Black Americans, and Maxwell notes later in her own book that much of Hillary's Black support came from her association with Barack Obama and results from what Maxwell refers to as "The Obama Coalition" in a chapter dedicated to why Obama's election meant so much to Black folks across the nation. I can't deny that your typical Bernie bro is a jackass, but there are many of his supporters that are not. Maxwell, a former staffer on the Hillary 2016 campaign, definitely stereotyped the hell out of Bernie's supporters without ever once stopping to reflect on the very real and very obvious problems with Clinton's own campaign, as Hillary supporters have always been apt to do. They can point the finger at everyone else except themselves. This is precisely what has made it very difficult for me to affiliate myself as a Democrat.

Maxwell also attacks Pete Buttegieg's privilege without acknowledging even once that he is the first openly gay candidate to see the level of campaign success that he did. It felt like an egregious error and one that an editor should have caught and kicked the hell out of this book. In fact, Maxwell's language is frustratingly binary throughout her book and does nothing to consider the LGBTQIA+ community at all, which feels like a really strange omission in the context of diversity that this book should be supporting. We also have no discussion over disabled folks, but then again, when do we ever? Talk about an overlooked minority group. Maybe this is my own privilege speaking again, though, because race is the central theme of this political discourse, and perhaps there ought to be other books speaking more about those issues. I guess you can't always pack it all into one place.

Overall, I do agree with Zerlina Maxwell's central thesis that the old white dudes are out and the young diverse crowd is in, and politics need to realign accordingly. I think this book makes crucial points that are easily digestible, and for those reasons, should be picked up by all white liberals that are serious about learning more about race in politics and the discourse around meaningful changes in our country. I can't wait for Washington to look less like the ol' boys club and more like "The Squad" which gets quite a bit of (warranted) discussion time in this book. Unfortunately, this book is already a bit dated, having come out just before the 2020 election, but it still touches upon many valid points that the Democratic party ought to consider moving forward. If the intersectionality of politics, class and race are important to you, definitely check this one out!