Racial Equality and Capitalism are Incompatible. The Events of the Past Few Weeks are Evidence of That Fact.
As long as Americans are commodified entities, racial inequality will remain a permanent fixture of American society. The intertwining of two seemingly indestructible ideologies, racism and capitalism, will see to it.
As protesters in Minneapolis took to the streets on Friday to protest the murder of George Floyd — yet another murder of an unarmed Black man at the hands of the police — Franklin the Turtle was going on the record to state that Congressional efforts to address mass unemployment in America resulting from COVID-19 were coming to an end.
“Unemployment insurance is extremely important, but it is not designed to encourage you to stay home; it is designed to get you through a trough until you can get back to work,” McConnell said when asked whether Congress would do more to improve the plight of working class Americans. “I think you can certainly assume we will not be paying people a bonus for staying home in another bill.”
A. Bonus. For. Staying. Home.
The Senate Majority Leader of the United States Congress referred to economic relief for the working class — a disproportionate number of whom are Black and are currently unemployed due to the economic carnage wreaked by COVID-19 — as “a bonus.” Let Moscow Mitch tell it; he is doing the American people a favor, rather than his job. At any rate, while his statement might, at best, incite a swift side eye and, at worst, cause one to utter some things that might require repentance and a heavy dose of holy water, it is one that requires deconstructing. For his cavalier statement is reflective of the ideals that underpin American society — ideals that, to the uncritical eye, might seem benign enough.
They are not.
Though it is well-known that the Civil War was a battle over the legitimacy and preservation of slavery, it is far less understood that the Civil War also laid bare the fact that “freedom” in America had always been, and would continue to be, a contingent affair for Black people, particularly as the country transitioned into an industrialized world in which one’s freedom would largely be a function of their material and economic standing. That is to say, the Civil War underscored the fact that Americans were becoming commodified.
Black people knew it then. Black people know it now.
The eruption of nationwide protests in the days following George Floyd’s murder are not simply responses to the unfortunate event that transpired on Monday, May 25 (though one might say that his murder catalyzed folks into action). Rather, they are a reflection of the growing recognition that we, as a nation, have yet to achieve a place in which everyone can take freedom for granted. Put another way, individuals flooding the streets of Minneapolis (and, increasingly, other major cities across the country) recognize that what befell George Floyd could, at any moment, befall them. Why is that?
Two reasons: Racism and capitalism.
To be clear, when I say racism I do not mean prejudice. The two are not synonymous. Moreover, I do not mean hatred stemming from the color of one’s skin. As scholars Barbara and Karen Fields describe, “racism is not an emotion or state of mind, such as intolerance, bigotry, hatred, or malevolence. If it were that, it would easily be overwhelmed, because most people mean well, most of the time, and in any case are usually busy pursuing other purposes.” Rather, they argue that “racism refers to the theory and the practice of applying a social, civic, or legal double standard based on ancestry, and to the ideology surrounding such a double standard.” In America, that double standard means that blackness — and all that it touches — is worthless. It means that blackness is forgettable. And, worst of all, it means that blackness is expendable.
This expendability, once interacted with the capitalist state, spells doom. In Undoing the Demos: Neoliberalism’s Stealth Revolution, author Wendy Brown explains that when neoliberal ideals of individualism and “market” competition — central to American capitalism — are allowed to dominate and are operationalized within every aspect of our lives, “inequality becomes legitimate, even normative, in every sphere.” In other words, inequality has become not only a normal fixture of our society, but a feature that many are wont to accept.
OK, so what does all this hifalutin academic speak mean? It means that our beloved “economy” likes her nation with a steady dose of inequality, and the blacker, the better!
And how does she fulfill that order? Three simple steps.
Step one: See to it that “the economy” is structured such that there are always more bodies available to work than there are jobs at any given point in time (thus, creating “structural” unemployment). For good measure, cultivate an ethos which holds that individuals who find themselves in this category must unilaterally shoulder the blame for their regrettable fate.
Step two: Create and proffer a nonsensical ideology that people with supposed African ancestry are somehow biologically inferior to people with ostensibly European ancestry and, thus, should be permanently relegated to the poor and working class — a class that, by design, will predominate the unemployed ranks. Apply this ideology to nearly every economic, social and political domain, through either overt or covert means. Call it ‘racism’ and convince people believe that ‘race’ is something they were born with, rather than something they were stamped with.
Step three: Devise political strategies that will permit elites (from both major parties) to employ steps one and two to whatever degree required for the amassing and hoarding of power. For Democrats, the more covert, the better! For Republicans, do whatever works, even if it means you might end up with a walking tangerine as your standard bearer.
As a result of these three actions, Black people in America are now faced with the reality that they are simply pawns in a dangerous game called America (well, not all of us recognize this point, unfortunately. But E. Franklin Frazier has already done the good work of dragging those folks, so no need to reinvent the wheel!). And many Black people are learning that this is not a game in which one can “diversity and inclusion,” “pull up your pants” or “vote!” themselves to victory. Black lives are not a part of America’s social contract, as Charles Mills so eloquently explained to us many moon ago.
This is not to say that the terms of the social contract cannot be rewritten. They can. But as long as we collectively comprise a system that not only takes our existence for granted, but deems it expendable (because of capitalism) and as long as the lives deemed more expendable are Black ones (because of racism), the war will rage on. To quote historian Barbara Fields once more, “…the Civil War is still going on; it’s still to be fought. And, regrettably, it can still be lost.”
Black Americans — along with Americans of all racial and ethnic classifications who recognize that America’s social contract needs to be re-written — are fighting the war. For themselves. For their posterity. For George Floyd.
Time will tell if the Civil War in America is to ever be won.