>Your criticism of Boushey boils down to dismissing as
>insignificant the distinction between relative and absolute advantage
>and a counterclaim that under capitalism whites and blacks and
>men and women all lose and ergo racism and sexism are in no ones
>interests, save maybe capitalists.
No, it doesn't. The _distinction_ between relative advantages that white workers have over black & other discriminated-against workers (expressed for instance in income inequality between races) and absolute gains of white workers (expressed for instance in real wages adjusted for inflation & social programs such as health care) is _crucial_, which Heather Boushey _obscures_. By pursuing the former (relative advantages), white workers lose the latter (gains in real wages & social programs). In _Racial Inequality_ (Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 1981), Michael Reich "demonstrates that greater racial inequality causes lower average earnings of white workers and higher profit rates. He uses the ratio of black to white earnings as a measure of racial inequality and racism. In cities in the U.S. South, where the gaps between the wages of blacks and whites are the greatest, wages of whites are the lowest, and profit the highest. Reich demonstrates empirically that not only black workers lose from racism but all workers as their incomes are reduced. If the wages of blacks were equal to whites, not only would the wages of blacks be higher but so would the wages of whites" (Peter Bohmer, "Radical Theories of Racism and Racial Inequality: Marxist and Internal Colonialism," at <http://www.zmag.org/CrisesCurEvts/bohmerrace.htm>). Hence racism is not in the real -- as opposed to perceived -- interest of white workers. The real interest of white workers is higher real wages & better social programs, though the perceived interest of many white workers has often been that they are better off than black & other discriminated-against workers. The tragicomedy of working-class racism is that white workers actually *lose* in real wages and social programs by *gaining* more relative advantages over black & other discriminated-against workers. The fight against racism involves fighting for the real interest of white workers, not just of black & other discriminated-against workers. In the process of this fight, white workers may also discover the joy of solidarity, which is superior to the paltry psychological wages of whiteness (since the "enjoyment" of the psychological wages of whiteness is crucially dependent upon the renunciation of a wide range of pleasures, according to David R. Roediger) -- an added benefit of anti-racist class struggles not to be underestimated. The job of Marxists is to aid in this good fight with theoretical knowledge, organizational savvy, & a little poetry.
white workers of the USA, wise up!
Yoshie