Doug: "I've forwarded the comments on Heather's article to her...."
Cool.
Doug: "it does seem that white workers gain relative to blacks thanks to racism."
Yes. Putting the *same thing* differently, Blacks are discriminated against thanks to racism.
Doug: "It may well be, in fact it probably is the fact, that racism has hindered the strength of the working class as a whole."
Yes.
Doug: "So from that point of view, the "black & white, unite & fight" slogan makes sense."
No. It is a disastrous slogan. In the interests of so-called unity, it would have the racism of whites and the discrimination faced by Blacks be ignored or declared of secondary importance. If, as you say, "racism has hindered the strength of the working class as a whole" -- and I'd say white workers' racism it is *the* single most important obstacle to the coalescence with Blacks (inside and outside the workplace) that is crucial to transforming this society for the better -- then the fight against racism is of first-rank importance. It should not be subsumed under some "general class struggle" and phony "unity." The conditions for real unity must be created, and they depend on breaking down racism and discrimination.
Doug: "Sure, in a nonracist world, workers as a whole would be better off, but that's difficult to imagine and a long way off."
Right. So isn't the foremost task to make it easier to imagine and therefore not such a long way off? The acceptance of the limits of the given has proven, time and time again, to throttle social progress. What is needed is "*critique* that measures the individual existence by the essence, the particular reality by the Idea." We've got to keep our eyes on the prize or we end up tailending lesser evils that keep getting ever more evil .
Doug: "So in the short term, the gain to the white worker of knowing that s/he makes more than a black counterpart provides some psychological benefit."
It seems that the "gain" doesn't "provide" psychological benefit, but that the psychological benefit *is* the gain. This may seem like nitpicking, but given the too-easy sliding from "Blacks lose" to "whites gain," it is important to be precise concerning just what the gains are and are not.
Sure there's psychological benefit. That's why, for instance, Marx said that freedom for Ireland was necessary for the liberation of the English working class, to shake them out of their complacency and sense of superiority. And it's why _Capital_ holds that labor in the white skin cannot emancipate itself when it is branded in the black and, conversely, the emancipation of the slaves rejuvenated the fight for a shorter workday.
Andrew ("Drewk") Kliman Home: Dept. of Social Sciences 60 W. 76th St., #4E Pace University New York, NY 10023 Pleasantville, NY 10570 (914) 773-3951 Andrew_Kliman at msn.com
"... the *practice* of philosophy is itself *theoretical.* It is the *critique* that measures the individual existence by the essence, the particular reality by the Idea." -- K.M.