Race in America is Impossible

Race in America is Impossible

An Essay by Wolf Larsen

from the book Capitalism Sucks

Race in America is impossible.  Black workers, white workers, and latin workers are divided against each other.  This division is fostered by white racists, black nationalists, and the news media.  The white, black, and latin workers are thus divided and conquered.  White and black workers vote for the Democratic Party – but the Democratic Party is the enemy of working people just like the Republicans.  Black faces in high places has changed nothing for working-class blacks.  While some blacks have risen to some of the most powerful positions in our country the fact is many blacks have been left behind to suffer in poverty.  Blacks who have positions of power have often used that power to oppress working class and poor blacks.

Some black people are wealthier than ever.  Some black people have more power than ever.  But many black workers and poor blacks are worse off than before.  Similarly, many white workers and many poor whites are also worse off than before.

A liberal white elite and most of the black elite continue to push the illusion that the Democrats are the friend of black people.  This is only partly true.  The Democrats are the friends of a small black elite with money and power.  The Democrats, just like the Republicans, are the enemies of working class and poor blacks.

Let us not forget that it was the Democrats that opposed the Emancipation Proclamation during the Civil War.  It was the Democrats that opposed the North making civil war against the South.  It was the Democrats, with the help of some moderate Republicans, who ended Reconstruction.

It all goes back to the Civil War.  If the Democrats had not ended Reconstruction black people may have achieved equality with whites in the 19th century!  During Reconstruction black people achieved wonderful gains!  However, because the Democrats ended Reconstruction black people have suffered another hundred years of brutal racist oppression. 

How is somebody going to say that the Democrats are more for black people when the Democrats wanted to maintain blacks as slaves?  If the Democrats had had their way black people wouldn't be living in the United States of America – they would be living in the Confederate States of America.  The Democrats wanted to let the Confederacy secede from the United States!  And many of the Confederate flag emblems on the state flags throughout the South were put there by the Democratic Party.

The fact is the Democratic Party is a party of Uncle Tom politicians, the KKK, Jim Crow segregation, and lynching.  That is the history of the Democratic Party.  The Democratic Party is not the friend of black people.

The fact that the Democrats put black faces in very high places changes nothing.  Throughout American history white cops and white judges and white politicians waged a war against black people.  Black men were brutalized, poor black men were thrown in jail for crimes they did not commit, and many black men were shot down in the streets by trigger-happy white cops.  Now, there are black cops shooting down innocent black men in the streets.  There are also black judges sentencing innocent black man to jail – where they are often raped!  And what the black politicians are doing to black people today is no different than what white politicians have been doing to black people for hundreds of years.

Black politicians keep down black people just like white politicians.  The most infamous example of this is the MOVE bombing in Philadelphia in May 1985.  The black mayor of Philadelphia ordered a bomb to be dropped on a black organization called MOVE.  The bombing murdered a dozen black activists and their children.  Over 60 black working-class homes in the black neighborhood burned down to the ground as a result of the bombing.

I remember May 1985.  I remember what made black nationalist men angry in May 1985.  I'm a white man and back in May 1985 my girlfriend was black.  Back in May 1985 wherever I went with my black girlfriend the black nationalists whined: "Oh sister and white man – what are you guys doing together?! WAAAAAAAAAA!"  However, in May 1985 I didn't hear a single black nationalist complain about a black mayor murdering a dozen black activists in cold blood and burning down over 60 black working-class homes in the process.

I guess they don't make black nationalists like they used to.  Malcolm X said: "When you vote Democrat you vote Dixiecrat!"  Malcolm X was murdered in cold blood by other black nationalists.  Black nationalists are inherently racist, but with some exceptions (like Malcolm X and the Black Panthers) most black nationalists are NOT militant at all.

It is ironic that black nationalists call other people "sellouts" and "Uncle Toms", when most black nationalists are hustling the black vote for a Democratic Party that opposed the Emancipation Proclamation, ended Reconstruction, and enforced Jim Crow on generations of blacks.  For years the Democratic Party was the favorite political party of the Ku Klux Klan!  So if the black nationalists want to know who the "sellouts" and "Uncle Toms" are than they just need to look in the mirror.

The Democratic Party may even select a black man or woman as its presidential candidate. What difference does it make to an innocent black man being raped in prison tonight if the President of the United States is black?  What difference does it make to a homeless black man living under a bridge that the President is black?  What difference does it make to a black man that's unemployed, to another black man making minimum wage without benefits, and another black man who can't afford medical care copayments that the President is black?

I am a white man.  I have been homeless.  I worked manual labor for 12 years.  I have waited for hours and hours at public hospitals in vain trying to get medical care.  I have worked for minimum wage.  It didn't make a damn bit of difference to me that the President was white.

Working class and poor black people urgently need real change in this country, just like working class and poor whites urgently need real change too.

Working class whites and blacks have many of the same struggles.  Poor whites and blacks have many of the same struggles too!  Medical care is increasingly becoming a privilege for the rich.  We are at the mercy of insurance companies!  Wages are stagnant.  We work hard and we get little in return.  The cost of living keeps going up, rents keep going up, gasoline keeps going up, food costs keep going up, and yet it doesn't seem that wages are keeping up.

If a white worker doesn't have enough money to put gasoline in his tank so he can drive to work, and he can't afford medical care for himself and his family, and his rent goes up and up and he can't afford it should he take pride that the President of the United States is white?  Obviously the answer is no!  And if the President of the United States is black and if you're a black man struggling to pay rent, medical care, and all those other bills and those stagnant wages just aren't keeping up with the rising cost of living should you give a damn whether the President is white or black?

Where do working class and poor blacks go from here?  Should they identify with the aspirations of the black elite?  Other than skin color what do working class and poor blacks have in common with the black elite?  Other than skin color what do working class and poor whites have in common with the white elite?

The fact is black people struggling to pay the bills and working for low wages have nothing in common with a black elite that drives luxury automobiles and has an entirely different lifestyle.  If you have to pull out a credit card and go further in debt just to pay your grocery bill than what do you have in common with someone eating caviar? 

There are some black people – a very small number of black people – who argue that blacks should vote Republican.  Their argument seems to be that since the Republicans actually did something for black people over 150 years ago that that's good enough reason for the black people to vote Republican.

If this was the 1860s then yes it would be a good idea to vote Republican.  Because back in the 1860s the Republican Party was doing positive things for black people – like Reconstruction, like the Emancipation Proclamation, and like smashing the Confederacy with the Union Army.

But a long time has passed since the 1860s.  And the Republican Party hasn't done a damn thing for black people since.  And that's why black people should not bother with the Republican Party.

So what should black people do – or rather what should black workers and black poor people do?  If neither the Democrats or the Republicans are doing a damn thing for black people than what should black people do?

Black people need a third party.  Most white people need a third party too.  But what kind of third party?  We certainly don't need the Green party!  The Green Party puts the rights of animals before the rights of workers!  How ridiculous!  There's all kinds of third parties out there that do not represent the interests of workers.

What both black and white workers need is a workers party.  A party that will fight for workers of all colors.  A workers party must pay special attention to the double oppression suffered by black workers in this country.  A workers party must fight for racial equality for black people.  White workers need to understand that black people have experienced four centuries of brutal racist oppression.

I worked as a longshoreman for 10 years.  A longshoreman is a dockworker.  My union racially integrated the docks back in the 1930s, thus giving black dockworkers more equality.  The fact that black and white workers thus worked together and were united in fighting a common struggle against the shipping bosses made it possible for me to make good wages.  I also had a certain degree of job security.  I couldn't be fired just because some lame foremen didn't like me.  It also helps that a black coworker saved me one day when an accident on the job nearly occurred.  If it hadn't been for that black coworker I would have been paralyzed from the waist down.

Besides watching each other's backs on the job black and white workers benefit from higher wages and better benefits when they fight together instead of against each other.  A workers party would extend the struggle of workers into the political sphere.  Thus, black and white workers together could fight for things like free quality medical care for all.

Let us not forget that the United States of America was founded by slaveholders and slave traders.  Black people will never achieve liberation and equality as long as they are ruled by a government founded by slaveholders and slave traders.  What black workers need is nothing less than a workers party.  White and latino workers need the same thing – a workers party.

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