Invention of the white race

[Wojtek Sokolowski]

Social stratification has always been justified as 'natural' and linked to
some biological features.  European feudal mythology portraying aristocracy
as a different 'breed' than peasantry ('blue" and 'red' blood, mythical
tribal ancestry, etc.) is no different than American mythology portraying
the dominant class as different 'race' than the underclass.  Perhaps the
Europeans did not use the word 'race,' but the principles of racism were
already there -- the peasant was seen as belonging to a biologically
different, and 'inferior,' species than the lord. Much of the 19th century
European racist 'science' was concerned about distinguishing among
different 'breeds' of white-skinned peoples who occupied different rungs of
social hierarchies.  American racists did not add anything new in that
respect.  

Even the process of gentryfication of people with the parvenue status is
always the same - by inventing fake biological bonds with members of the
dominat class.  The bougeois nouveau riche who aspired to the higher social
status often did it by manufacturing their genealogy, marriage etc. to
demonstrate thet their status is founded in biology rather than social
conventions.  The  Eastern European peasants educated at the public expense
under state socialism and turned into intelligentsia now search for their
bourgeois or aristocratic 'roots' - they even invented a new term for that
process, 'embourgeoisment.'  In the same vein, the Southern or Eastern
European immigrants have acquired the biological trait of the dominant
class in Amerika - being white.


>From where I stand, deconstructing these fake biological bonds, including
the concept of race, is like debunking religious myths -  unnecessary for
the nonbelivers, futile for the believers.  A more productive approach is
to focus the attention away from the  cultural epiphenomena (especially
manufactured biological links) toward the core of the problem - class
stratification.

Regards,

Wojtek Sokolowski