Who Killed Vincent Chin? (was Barkley on WTO, etc)

[michael perelman]

David Levy -- a libertarian -- is completing a book on the racial views of
early English economists and their critics -- people, such as Ruskin.  The
famous early economists tended not  to be racist (exactly).  They believed
that all raises could be "lifted" to be like the English.  Many of the
critics approved of slavery because they believed the non-British (not
just Blacks or Asians) to be fundmentally inferior.

I don't buy his story all the way, but it is a useful counterpoint to the
simple identification of racism and capitalism.  Capitalism has been
willing and able to use racism very effectively, but it is always ready to
exploit any people it can find regardless of race.  I have always been
struck by the way that the early characterizations of the Irish resembled
the racist image of Blacks.

Doug Henwood wrote:


> Charles Brown wrote:
>
> >CAPITALISM is racist to the core, always has been.
>
> Does it have to be? If we're supposed to be paid according to our
> marginal product, isn't discrimination opposed to basic capitalist
> principles? I really don't know the answer to this, but it seems to
> me you could argue there are anti-racist tendencies within capitalism
> too, and to declare it as essentially racist is to overstate the case.
>
> Doug

--
Michael Perelman
Economics Department
California State University
Chico, CA 95929

Tel. 530-898-5321
E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu