[lbo-talk] Tim Wise wins it (was loses it)

[Marv Gandall]

On 2013-07-09, at 9:42 AM, Doug Henwood wrote:
> 
> On Jul 9, 2013, at 9:33 AM, mjs at smithbowen.net wrote:
> 
>>> Do u agree that white supremacy is the glue that holds the US class
>>> system together ?
>> 
>> Of course not. To the extent that this phrase means anything at
>> all, it's puerile and cartoonish.
> 
> I'm reading Shamus Khan's excellent book on St Paul's School, Privilege. The school, once a major institution of the old WASP establishment, has "diversified" itself enormously over the last generation. Khan, the son of upwardly mobile immigrants from Pakistan, went there and taught there for a while. They are extremely fucking serious about diversity. A third of the student body is on aid. The old WASP legacies are now a small minority within the school and a bit of a joke. This notion of white supremacy is way way out of date - which, of course, doesn't stop people from robotically reciting it as if nothing has changed since 1957.

I'm not sure how you and Charles would each define "white supremacy", Doug. Overt expressions of racism are no longer acceptable, particularly among urban liberal professionals. But though the culture is now more tolerant and opportunities have opened up for educated blacks, the economic disparities between blacks and whites, characteristic of the class system since slavery, not only persist, but seem to have markedly widened since the purported end of white supremacy. A 2010 study reported income inequality up fourfold since the Reagan years. So is white supremacy an ongoing structural feature of US capitalism, or is it merely an attitude, or an historically-specific phenomenon corresponding to the denial of democratic rights to black Americans prior to the passage of the Civil Rights Act in the 60's?