racism and unemployment

Frank Scott frank at marin.cc.ca.us
Mon Aug 10 22:18:34 PDT 1998


The stress on skin privilege enjoyed by white workers over black can help people forget that such privilege is quite relative, and may lead us to disregard those who are most privileged. They do not work at all, and they are the major problem, not some stiff making 25k, alllegedly at the expense of another stiff making only 20k...

Racism is a major problem and is used as a divisive force, but in coming to grips with that force, we need to keep clear as to its source. Workers do need to unite, and we also need to understand that some among us are not treated quite as scummily as others among us.That is no reason to feel guilty, but offers more reason to question why some people have seven homes while others barely manage one, and to realize that the people with one home- if that- have little to separate them but the fact that they have so little compared to those with so much more.

Capitalism will adjust to such debates by enabling a handful of tokens to aquire more than the average worker, thus making it more difficult to convince a white worker that he or she is privileged to earn 30k, while some black worker is making 50k. Racism is evil and it kills, but division among people with much in common kills just as much, if more slowly and with less drama in the short term. As long as investors can make money on dog food, missiles and lipstick, while people need health care, food, shelter and all that multi-cultural stuff, what's wrong with society is even bigger than race. We need to keep our eyes on the prize, and the cancer as well.

frank scott



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