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Racism does not operate in isolation from other ideologies of oppression, but rather a society or an individual often experiences it as part of a non-hierarchical multidimensional system of oppression. The best illustration of this fact is the case of African American women: they are victimized, at the same time, by classism (because of capitalism), racism (from white women), racist-sexism (from white men), and sexism (from black men). To take another example: victims of racism (e.g. Jewish Americans or Asian Americans) will also perpetrate their own racism on other minorities (e.g. African Americans). One more example: the emerging African American middle-class, who themselves are victims of Euro-American racism, will perpetrate classism on fellow African Americans. A good example of this are African American conservatives who support racist legislation aimed at barring the means to overcome or mitigate institutional racism: such as affirmative action and welfare programs.
Racism does not operate in isolation from other ideologies of oppression, but rather a society or an individual often experiences it as part of a non-hierarchical multidimensional system of oppression. The best illustration of this fact is the case of African American women: they are victimized, at the same time, by classism (because of capitalism), racism (from white women), racist-sexism (from white men), and sexism (from black men). To take another example: victims of racism (e.g. Jewish Americans or Asian Americans) will also perpetrate their own racism on other minorities (e.g. African Americans). One more example: the emerging African American middle-class, who themselves are victims of Euro-American racism, will perpetrate classism on fellow African Americans. A good example of this are African American conservatives who support racist legislation aimed at barring the means to overcome or mitigate institutional racism: such as affirmative action and welfare programs.
Today in the U.S., racial categories to some extent do coincide with class categories, not perfectly, but generally. In such circumstances, the issue of race rather than class assumes salience in political behavior. However, as structures of juridical institutional racism begin to be dismantled the situation starts to become more complex because the class factor gains ascendancy in explaining political behavior. (Racism, therefore, is ultimately an epiphenomenon in capitalist democracies.)[1] In the case, for example, of blacks in the U.S. the principal division that has emerged among them that is of political significance is between the new U.S. African American petite bourgeoisie and the U.S. African American working and unemployed class.[2] Here, it should be pointed out that in suggesting that the blacks have undergone class fragmentation in the U.S. there is the implicit suggestion that institutionalized racism is assailable to a significant degree via political struggle. The civil rights movement of the 1960s did make a sufficient dent in it to permit some 5% of blacks to achieve middle class or bourgeois status by the end of the 1970s. The sad fact, however, is that the result of this class fragmentation has been the divergence of political and economic interests of blacks along class lines. Thus, for instance, the slowly expanding ranks of black conervatives—of whom people like Condoleezza Rice, Colin Powell, Ben Carson, and Clarence Thomas are among the more well-known—is indicative of the fact that the interests of all blacks no longer coincide. The class interests of the well-off blacks (the direct beneficiaries of the small political and economic space opened up by the Civil Rights struggle) are closer to those of the white bourgeoisie than to those of the vast mass of urban and rural black poor, who, if and when they vote, tend to vote for the Democratic Party.
Today in the U.S., racial categories to some extent do coincide with class categories, not perfectly, but generally. In such circumstances, the issue of race rather than class assumes salience in political behavior. However, as structures of juridical institutional racism begin to be dismantled the situation starts to become more complex because the class factor gains ascendancy in explaining political behavior. (Racism, therefore, is ultimately an epiphenomenon in capitalist democracies.)[1] In the case, for example, of blacks in the U.S. the principal division that has emerged among them that is of political significance is between the new U.S. African American petite bourgeoisie and the U.S. African American working and unemployed class.[2] Here, it should be pointed out that in suggesting that the blacks have undergone class fragmentation in the U.S. there is the implicit suggestion that institutionalized racism is assailable to a significant degree via political struggle. The civil rights movement of the 1960s did make a sufficient dent in it to permit some 5% of blacks to achieve middle class or bourgeois status by the end of the 1970s. The sad fact, however, is that the result of this class fragmentation has been the divergence of political and economic interests of blacks along class lines. Thus, for instance, the slowly expanding ranks of black conervatives—of whom people like Condoleezza Rice, Colin Powell, Ben Carson, and Clarence Thomas are among the more well-known—is indicative of the fact that the interests of all blacks no longer coincide. The class interests of the well-off blacks (the direct beneficiaries of the small political and economic space opened up by the Civil Rights struggle) are closer to those of the white bourgeoisie than to those of the vast mass of urban and rural black poor, who, if and when they vote, tend to vote for the Democratic Party.
In other words: with the weakening of institutionalized racism in the U.S., racial discrimination is not as close to watertight as it was before; it has allowed a number of “token” blacks to achieve upward mobility. However, as their numbers have become politically sizable, their behavior has also changed accordingly in the direction of supporting the status quo. Their interests have now diverged from the rest of the members of their community to such an extent that they will now, with a perfectly straight face, even deny the existence of white racism. What is more, others (such as one Shelby Steele [a professor of English] and one Thomas Sowell [a conservative economist]) have begun adopting the same “blame the victim” racist doctrines held by whites to explain why fellow blacks are not achieving upward mobility.[3] Cashman (1991: 240-41) best describes the political character of these token blacks, this new U.S. African American bourgeoisie (or “elite” as he calls them), as: “staunch advocates of American capitalism, whose beneficiaries they had become since American capitalism had made significant concessions to them on such issues as affirmative action.” He notes further on: “They did not want a restructuring of American economics and politics lest this should endanger their new, hard won advantages. The undoubted prosperity of certain privileged sectors among the fortunate U.S. African American elite seemed to hide the apparently irreversible drift of numerous U.S. African Americans toward the nation’s poor.” A good example of this privileged type of U.S. African American is the current Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, Clarence Thomas. As the Congressional confirmation hearings over his appointment in 1991 revealed, this confused arch conservative who had been a beneficiary of the movement for civil rights was, now that he had done well, no longer interested in supporting policies and programs that had helped to weaken institutionalized racism in the 1960s and 1970s.
In other words: with the weakening of institutionalized racism in the U.S., racial discrimination is not as close to watertight as it was before; it has allowed a number of “token” blacks to achieve upward mobility. However, as their numbers have become politically sizable, their behavior has also changed accordingly in the direction of supporting the status quo. Their interests have now diverged from the rest of the members of their community to such an extent that they will now, with a perfectly straight face, even deny the existence of white racism. What is more, others (such as one Shelby Steele [a professor of English] and one Thomas Sowell [a conservative economist]) have begun adopting the same “blame the victim” racist doctrines held by whites to explain why fellow blacks are not achieving upward mobility.[3] Cashman (1991: 240-41) best describes the political character of these token blacks, this new U.S. African American bourgeoisie (or “elite” as he calls them), as: “staunch advocates of American capitalism, whose beneficiaries they had become since American capitalism had made significant concessions to them on such issues as affirmative action.” He notes further on: “They did not want a restructuring of American economics and politics lest this should endanger their new, hard won advantages. The undoubted prosperity of certain privileged sectors among the fortunate U.S. African American elite seemed to hide the apparently irreversible drift of numerous U.S. African Americans toward the nation’s poor.” A good example of this privileged type of U.S. African American is the current Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, Clarence Thomas. As the Congressional confirmation hearings over his appointment in 1991 revealed, this confused arch conservative who had been a beneficiary of the movement for civil rights was, now that he had done well, no longer interested in supporting policies and programs that had helped to weaken institutionalized racism in the 1960s and 1970s.
Yet, notice that the majority of the black masses failed to realize that even though Thomas was an African American he was not necessarily their friend or ally (in fact, as a Republican in the U.S. politics of the 1990s and beyond, how could he be).[4] Sure, Thomas did use the “race” card when it appeared that his confirmation was in jeopardy after a black woman accused him of sexual harassment (though earlier in the hearings he had denied that race had anything to do with his appointment), but that has been a common ploy of this new U.S. African American elite. The black masses have so far, it appears, failed to realize (like its white counterpart) that in the politics of this first decade of the twenty-first century, the critical issue, increasingly, has not been and will not be race, but class when it comes to deciding which candidates to vote into office. If the black working class continues to vote for black candidates, merely and solely because the candidates are black, then they will find themselves in the same position that the white working class is in (who also—most especially in the South—tends to vote for candidates merely and solely because the candidates are of a certain color, white). This position is one of increasing economic and political marginalization.
Yet, notice that the majority of the black masses failed to realize that even though Thomas was an African American he was not necessarily their friend or ally (in fact, as a Republican in the U.S. politics of the 1990s and beyond, how could he be).[4] Sure, Thomas did use the “race” card when it appeared that his confirmation was in jeopardy after a black woman accused him of sexual harassment (though earlier in the hearings he had denied that race had anything to do with his appointment), but that has been a common ploy of this new U.S. African American elite. The black masses have so far, it appears, failed to realize (like its white counterpart) that in the politics of this first decade of the twenty-first century, the critical issue, increasingly, has not been and will not be race, but class when it comes to deciding which candidates to vote into office. If the black working class continues to vote for black candidates, merely and solely because the candidates are black, then they will find themselves in the same position that the white working class is in (who also—most especially in the South—tends to vote for candidates merely and solely because the candidates are of a certain color, white). This position is one of increasing economic and political marginalization.
In other words, it is time that the vast majority of U.S. African Americans, the poor and unemployed, realized that even though the struggle for civil rights was mounted on their backs, the true beneficiaries of the struggle have been this new U.S. African American petite bourgeoisie who are not interested in the welfare of the rest of their fellow U.S. African Americans. As befits all capitalist systems, they are interested only in furthering their own interests (which means that from time to time they may still be inclined to play the “race” card, but only when it suits their interests). Thanks to the struggle for civil rights the political situation in the U.S. has become more complex: race and class are both now significant factors. Both black and white politicians each appeal to the black and white masses to vote for them because they share their color respectively, and the masses get taken in, without realizing that these politicians often do not necessarily represent their interests, but the interests of the bourgeoisie.[5] Interestingly, a similar situation is now developing in former apartheid South Africa too, of course. There, the abandonment of the apartheid system in the absence of radical changes in the economic system has created a potential to unleash upon the majority a renewed economic tyranny by a reconstituted capitalist class that will now incorporate a fragment of the black population: the emerging compradorial petite bourgeoisie. The struggle against white racist tyranny first begun by blacks from almost the day the European settler first set foot in South Africa—vainly pitting spears against bullets, and following military defeat, relaunching the struggle via nonviolent strategies which in turn eventually become transformed into violent struggles in the face of an intransigent neofascist state— culminating in the final defeat of the apartheid state is but only the first step in a long struggle that has only just begun: the struggle for economic dignity, one that will take blacks far into this century. And if the experiences of South America are anything to go by, where freedom from colonialism was achieved over a hundred years ago, the future does not look bright at all. The race struggle is being transformed into a class struggle— testifying to the inherent epiphenomenal character of racism in capitalist societies.[6]
In other words, it is time that the vast majority of U.S. African Americans, the poor and unemployed, realized that even though the struggle for civil rights was mounted on their backs, the true beneficiaries of the struggle have been this new U.S. African American petite bourgeoisie who are not interested in the welfare of the rest of their fellow U.S. African Americans. As befits all capitalist systems, they are interested only in furthering their own interests (which means that from time to time they may still be inclined to play the “race” card, but only when it suits their interests). Thanks to the struggle for civil rights the political situation in the U.S. has become more complex: race and class are both now significant factors. Both black and white politicians each appeal to the black and white masses to vote for them because they share their color respectively, and the masses get taken in, without realizing that these politicians often do not necessarily represent their interests, but the interests of the bourgeoisie.[5] Interestingly, a similar situation is now developing in former apartheid South Africa too, of course. There, the abandonment of the apartheid system in the absence of radical changes in the economic system has created a potential to unleash upon the majority a renewed economic tyranny by a reconstituted capitalist class that will now incorporate a fragment of the black population: the emerging compradorial petite bourgeoisie. The struggle against white racist tyranny first begun by blacks from almost the day the European settler first set foot in South Africa—vainly pitting spears against bullets, and following military defeat, relaunching the struggle via nonviolent strategies which in turn eventually become transformed into violent struggles in the face of an intransigent neofascist state— culminating in the final defeat of the apartheid state is but only the first step in a long struggle that has only just begun: the struggle for economic dignity, one that will take blacks far into this century. And if the experiences of South America are anything to go by, where freedom from colonialism was achieved over a hundred years ago, the future does not look bright at all. The race struggle is being transformed into a class struggle— testifying to the inherent epiphenomenal character of racism in capitalist societies.[6]
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NOTES
NOTES
[1] That is, class as demarcated by ownership or lack of ownership of the principal means of production; not class as determined by such criteria of stratification as levels of income (the latter criteria may be relevant, but only tangentially). From this perspective, only two principal classes are of significance here: those that emerge out of capitalism, namely, capital (or its equivalent the modern bourgeoisie) which has a complete monopoly over the means of production (be it land, factories, etc.) and the working class which has no access to the means of production, and therefore must sell their labor-power to capital in order to survive.
[1] That is, class as demarcated by ownership or lack of ownership of the principal means of production; not class as determined by such criteria of stratification as levels of income (the latter criteria may be relevant, but only tangentially). From this perspective, only two principal classes are of significance here: those that emerge out of capitalism, namely, capital (or its equivalent the modern bourgeoisie) which has a complete monopoly over the means of production (be it land, factories, etc.) and the working class which has no access to the means of production, and therefore must sell their labor-power to capital in order to survive.
[2] It is new in the sense that it owes its origins to the civil rights movement of the 1960s.
[2] It is new in the sense that it owes its origins to the civil rights movement of the 1960s.
[3] Notice, however, that these same “token blacks,” whenever they need support from other blacks for their own private projects, will emerge to seek black support on grounds that all blacks should stick together and support each other. It is in the face of such appeals that the black working class must be wary; for, in the past such an argument may have been valid, but in the present it is no longer so. For instance, today in the U.S., supporting a white rival over a black rival (for a given political office) may often be the right course of political action, depending upon their political agendas. This is what is meant by suggesting that racism (compared to class) in capitalist democratic societies can be an epiphenomenon; it is not to deny the existence of racism.
[3] Notice, however, that these same “token blacks,” whenever they need support from other blacks for their own private projects, will emerge to seek black support on grounds that all blacks should stick together and support each other. It is in the face of such appeals that the black working class must be wary; for, in the past such an argument may have been valid, but in the present it is no longer so. For instance, today in the U.S., supporting a white rival over a black rival (for a given political office) may often be the right course of political action, depending upon their political agendas. This is what is meant by suggesting that racism (compared to class) in capitalist democratic societies can be an epiphenomenon; it is not to deny the existence of racism.
[4] his appointment to the Supreme Court, on almost all cases he has sat on, this man has not only sided with capital rather than labor, but, acting in consort with his fellow conservatives, he has sought to weaken respect and protection of civil rights and human rights (in direct contrast to that great Supreme Court justice Thurgood Marshall, who, most ironically, he was appointed to replace) for all in this country.
[4] his appointment to the Supreme Court, on almost all cases he has sat on, this man has not only sided with capital rather than labor, but, acting in consort with his fellow conservatives, he has sought to weaken respect and protection of civil rights and human rights (in direct contrast to that great Supreme Court justice Thurgood Marshall, who, most ironically, he was appointed to replace) for all in this country.
[5] For more on the issue of class formation and its implications for black politics in the U.S. For a sampling of the right wing ultra-conservative political views of black Republicans see their journal: The Lincoln Review.
[5] For more on the issue of class formation and its implications for black politics in the U.S. For a sampling of the right wing ultra-conservative political views of black Republicans see their journal: The Lincoln Review.
[6] This should not be taken to imply that racism will not be an issue any more with the elimination of the apartheid system. For, as the experiences of countries such as the United States, Canada, and Britain so well demonstrate institutional racism—even in the absence of legislative mandate—can thrive via many devious mechanisms. In these countries, as blacks so well know, elaborate but extremely subtle ways have been found to discriminate against blacks in employment, housing, education and so on. The point, however, to take the U.S. example, is that given that racism is illegal now racial discrimination cannot be as close to watertight as it was before; it does allow a number of “token” blacks to achieve upward mobility. However, as their numbers become politically sizable their behavior also changes accordingly in the direction of supporting the status quo. Their interests begin to diverge from the rest of the members of their community to such an extent that they may, with a perfectly straight face, deny the existence of racism and begin adopting the same “blame the victim” racist doctrines held by whites to explain why fellow blacks are not achieving upward mobility. Such people, however, often lead double-faced political lives: whenever they need support from blacks for their own private projects they will emerge to seek black support on grounds that all blacks should stick together and support each other. It is in the face of such appeals that the black working class must be wary; for, in the past such an argument may have been valid but in the present it is no longer so. For instance, supporting a white rival over a black rival (for a given political office) may often be the right course of political action. This is what is meant by suggesting that racism (compared to class) in capitalist societies is an epiphenomenon; it is not to deny its existence.
[6] This should not be taken to imply that racism will not be an issue any more with the elimination of the apartheid system. For, as the experiences of countries such as the United States, Canada, and Britain so well demonstrate institutional racism—even in the absence of legislative mandate—can thrive via many devious mechanisms. In these countries, as blacks so well know, elaborate but extremely subtle ways have been found to discriminate against blacks in employment, housing, education and so on. The point, however, to take the U.S. example, is that given that racism is illegal now racial discrimination cannot be as close to watertight as it was before; it does allow a number of “token” blacks to achieve upward mobility. However, as their numbers become politically sizable their behavior also changes accordingly in the direction of supporting the status quo. Their interests begin to diverge from the rest of the members of their community to such an extent that they may, with a perfectly straight face, deny the existence of racism and begin adopting the same “blame the victim” racist doctrines held by whites to explain why fellow blacks are not achieving upward mobility. Such people, however, often lead double-faced political lives: whenever they need support from blacks for their own private projects they will emerge to seek black support on grounds that all blacks should stick together and support each other. It is in the face of such appeals that the black working class must be wary; for, in the past such an argument may have been valid but in the present it is no longer so. For instance, supporting a white rival over a black rival (for a given political office) may often be the right course of political action. This is what is meant by suggesting that racism (compared to class) in capitalist societies is an epiphenomenon; it is not to deny its existence.
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