Racialization and Class

A Marxist perspective

The racial ID

In the country of my residence, the US, I am Black. Back in my birth country of Jamaica, I am Jamaican. In any other country when they hear me speak, I am American as far as anyone can tell. I am of the lowest class, an artificial racial class, but I and my White comrades are the proletariat, or working class. Race is the greatest scheme concocted by the bourgeoisie and it needs to be abolished.

Humans have always sought to understand and define what they don’t understand, but our modern conception of race has its roots in the European Enlightenment, as scientists, philosophers, and other influential thinkers sought to have a more scientific understanding of the world. The (mostly English) ruling class invented whiteness in the 17th century to separate European (typically Irish indentured servants) from African and Indigenous American indentured servants and enslaved people, as previously, they were treated similarly. This was in response to Bacon's Rebellion in 1673, as it was clear that the enslaved and servants outnumbered those in power. They grew fearful and in response, created a system where Africans were now primarily the targets of slavery and servitude. Divide and Conquer.

Prior to skin color and other arbitrary features, religious identity was used in place of race as a method of control and oppression, i.e., the Spanish Inquisition. Imperialist desires were justified by a Christianizing mission by European colonizers. However, it was clear that anyone could convert to Christianity, or at least pretend to. There needed to be a firm hierarchy relying on immutable characteristics- skin color, facial features, and hair texture— the process of racialization.

In school, I learned taught that Germans, Italians, the Irish, and other groups had to become white and assimilate. Perhaps a deracialization? To become white is to lose your prior cultural identity and history, which is a tragedy. Your family tree starts when your ancestors first arrived on the shores of east-coast America. Knowing that you’re of Irish descent is just a mildly interesting factoid and a consolation that your ancestors probably weren’t slave owners. To be white is to be protected from the reality of being non-white—to be protected from police brutality and to gain the ability to weaponize the police against other minorities. To be White in this world is to be raceless— presumed default and with full personhood, according to philosopher Dr. Charles W Mills.

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Racial Triangulation

That brings us to today. How do you further divide people with a clear shared struggle? Let's draw our attention to two people in particular: Nimarata “Nikki” Haley, and Vivek Ramaswamy, two South Asian candidates. Haley, a 2024 Republican presidential candidate, is an interesting character. She acknowledges her Indian background when it suits her, typically to rail against immigration or whitewash American history, typically by pushing the model minority myth with stories of her parents and her own successes, marking her own race down as “white” on ballots. Ramaswamy, another current Indian American candidate is running his campaign of being ‘anti-woke’, which is just a dog whistle for anti-black, anti-LGBT, and anti-progress overall. Both love to invoke former President Barack Obama’s name to appeal to those who hated him (for reasons that don’t include his neocolonialist, imperialist track record).

We are all aware of the myth of the model minority. Immigrants come here from East and South Asia, the Middle East, and various sub-Saharan African countries like Nigeria and excel, surpassing their American-born counterparts. Most have come to believe that they are smarter, work harder, and are more disciplined.

“Well, look at that! They’ve come here and succeeded. What’s your excuse? It must be a problem of culture.”

It’s a lie, a dangerous one connected to the concept of racial triangulation. According to political scientist Dr. Claire Jean Kim, racial triangulation can be summarized as using Asians as a “wedge” against Black Americans, with the ruling class perpetuating the myth of the “model minority” (usually Asian) against the struggling Black underclass. At the same time, Asian Americans remain the perpetual “outsider”, or other, in a White-Black dichotomy. Prior to 1965, the US had an immigration system that prioritized “White”, European immigrants over non-white immigrants, severely restricting their entrance. However, the 1965 Immigration Act lifted the restrictions, allowing the Asian American community to rapidly grow. With that being said, Asians have had a history in the US spanning centuries, with the first being Chinese immigrants who arrived in the mid-1800s.

Our model minorities are typically medical doctors, professors, or engineers, among other highly respected careers, who make six figures or even more. It must be proof of the American dream. However, the truth is that the 1965 Immigration Act prioritized “qualified immigrants”, those who were already qualified for those jobs, while restricting other laborers who the government thought wouldn’t contribute much. This can be contrasted with the 1942 Bracero Programs, where Mexican farm laborers or “low-skilled” workers came to the US and were exploited and faced abuse until 1964. To this day, the US still relies on migrant Latino farm labor, while still denying them citizenship.

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This is about class, not race

It clearly was not enough to divide the working class between White and “colored”. During the civil rights movement of the 50s and 60s and amidst the cold war era, it was shown that different communities could rally together, whether over intersectional issues or socialist ambitions.

I say this to draw a parallel to 1673 and the creation of race. Back then and throughout the 20th century, we witnessed the differentiation of the kind of worker. The Irishmen of the 17th century and the highly-skilled immigrants of today are made separate from the enslaved Africans of the past and from the low-skilled immigrants of today, and somehow those differences justified exploitation. In the media, the working class is constantly being shown the strawman of the “dangerous Black man” or the Latino migrant “stealing our jobs”. We have also been made to think that African Americans are “stealing” university spots from White people or Asians, further fueling racial triangulation in the wake of the reversal of Affirmative Action. Our inherent value as humans and our labor has been cheapened while the ruling class hides its hand behind various boogeymen. I call upon my reader to recontextualize race as a form of class. We are American, Jamaican, Indian, whatever, but ultimately we share the same struggle.

Final note: this is not saying to be ‘race-blind’, which is an unhelpful liberal approach that only sustains systemic issues. My intent is to instead draw attention to the convoluted system of oppression that the capitalist ruling class has woven for us. We must all work to unravel it for good.