http://www.dsausa.org/rl/Race/West.html
TOWARD A SOCIALIST THEORY OF RACISM
by Cornel West
What is the relationship between the struggle against racism and
socialist theory and practice in the United States? Why should people of
color active in antiracist movements take democratic socialism
seriously? And how can American socialists today learn from inadequate
attempts by socialists in the past to understand the complexity of
racism? In this pamphlet, I try to address these crucial questions
facing the democratic socialist movement. First, I examine past Marxist
efforts to comprehend what racism is and how it operates in varying
contexts. Second, I attempt to develop a new conception of racism which
builds upon, yet goes beyond the Marxist tradition. Third, I examine how
this new conception sheds light on the roles of racism in the American
past and present. Last, I try to show that the struggle against racism
is both morally and politically necessary for democratic socialists.
Past Marxist Conceptions of Racism
Most socialist theorizing about racism has occurred within a Marxist
framework and has focused on the Afro-American experience. While my
analysis concentrates on people of African descent, particularly
Afro-Americans, it also has important implications for analyzing the
racism that plagues other peoples of color, such as Spanish-speaking
Americans (for example, Chicanos and Puerto Ricans), Asians, and Native
Americans.
There are four basic conceptions of racism in the Marxist tradition. The
first subsumes racism under the general rubric of working-class
exploitation. This viewpoint tends to ignore forms of racism not
determined by the workplace. At the turn of the century, this position
was put forward by many leading figures in the Socialist party,
particularly Eugene Debs. Debs believed that white racism against
peoples of color was solely a "divide-and-conquer strategy" of the
ruling class and that any attention to its operations "apart from the
general labor problem" would constitute racism in reverse.
My aim is not to castigate the Socialist party or insinuate that Debs
was a racist. The Socialist party had some distinguished black members,
and Debs had a long history of fighting racism. But any analysis that
confines itself to oppression in the workplace overlooks racism's
operation in other spheres of life. For the Socialist party, this
yielded a "color-blind" strategy for resisting racism in which all
workers were viewed simply as workers with no specific identity or
problems. Complex racist practices within and outside the workplace were
reduced to mere strategies of the ruling class.
The second conception of racism in the Marxist tradition acknowledges
the specific operation of racism within the workplace (for example, job
discrimination and structural inequality of wages) but remains silent
about these operations outside the workplace. This viewpoint holds that
peoples of color are subjected both to general working-class
exploitation and to a specific "super-exploitation" resulting from less
access to jobs and lower wages. On the practical plane, this perspective
accented a more intense struggle against racism than did Debs'
viewpoint, and yet it still limited this struggle to the workplace.
The third conception of racism in the Marxist tradition, the so-called
"Black Nation thesis, " has been the most influential among black
Marxists. It claims that the operation of racism is best understood as a
result of general and specific working-class exploitation and national
oppression. This viewpoint holds that Afro-Americans constitute, or once
constituted, an oppressed nation in the Black Belt South and an
oppressed national minority in the rest of American society.
There are numerous versions of the Black Nation Thesis. Its classical
form was put forth by the American Communist party in 1928, was then
modified in the 1930 resolution and codified in Harry Haywood's Negro
Liberation (1948). Some small Leninist organizations still subscribe to
the thesis, and its most recent reformulation appeared in James Forman's
Self-Determination and the African-American People (1981). All of these
variants adhere to Stalin's definition of a nation set forth in his
Marxism and the National Question (1913) which states that "a nation is
a historically constituted, stable community of people formed on the
basis of a common language, territory, economic life and psychological
make-up manifested in a common culture." Despite its brevity and
crudity, this formulation incorporates a crucial cultural dimension
overlooked by the other two Marxist accounts of racism. Furthermore,
linking racist practices to struggles between dominating and dominated
nations (or peoples) has been seen as relevant to the plight of Native
Americans, Chicanos, and Puerto Ricans who were disinherited and
decimated by white colonial settlers. Such models of "internal
colonialism" have important implications for organizing strategies
because they give particular attention to critical linguistic and
cultural forms of oppression. They remind us that much of the American
West consists of lands taken from Native Americans and from Mexico.
Since the Garveyite movement of the 1920s, which was the first mass
movement among Afro-Americans, the black left has been forced to take
seriously the cultural dimension of the black freedom struggle. Marcus
Garvey's black nationalism rendered most black Marxists
"proto-Gramscians" in at least the limited sense that they took cultural
concerns more seriously than many other Marxists. But this concern with
cultural life was limited by the Black Nation Thesis itself. Although
the theory did inspire many impressive struggles against racism by the
predominantly white left, particularly in the 1930s, its ahistorical
racial definition of a nation, its purely statistical determination of
national boundaries (the South was a black nation because of its then
black majority population), and its illusory conception of a distinct
black national economy ultimately rendered it an inadequate analysis.
The fourth conception of racism in the Marxist tradition claims that
racist practices result not only from general and specific
working-class exploitation but also from xenophobic attitudes that are
not strictly reducible to class exploitation. From this perspective,
racist attitudes have a life and logic of their own, dependent upon
psychological factors and cultural practices. This viewpoint was
motivated primarily by opposition to the predominant role of the Black
Nation Thesis on the American and Afro-American left. Its most prominent
exponents were W. E. B. DuBois and Oliver Cox.
Toward a More Adequate Conception of Racism
This brief examination of past Marxist views leads to one conclusion.
Marxist theory is indispensable yet ultimately inadequate for grasping
the complexity of racism as a historical phenomenon. Marxism is
indispensable because it highlights the relation of racist practices to
the capitalist mode of production and recognizes the crucial role racism
plays within the capitalist economy. Yet Marxism is inadequate because
it fails to probe other spheres of American society where racism plays
an integral role-especially the psychological and cultural spheres.
Furthermore, Marxist views tend to assume that racism has its roots in
the rise of modern capitalism. Yet, it can easily be shown that although
racist practices were shaped and appropriated by modern capitalism,
racism itself predates capitalism. Its roots lie in the earlier
encounters between the civilizations of Europe, Africa, Asia, and Latin
America-encounters that occurred long before the rise of modern
capitalism.
It indeed is true that the very category of "race"-denoting primarily
skin color-was first employed as a means of classifying human bodies by
Francois Bernier, a French physician, in 1684. The first authoritative
racial division of humankind is found in the influential Natural System
(1735) of the preeminent naturalist of the 18th century, Caroluc
Linnaeus. Both of these instances reveal European racist practices at
the level of intellectual codificaton since both degrade and devalue
non-Europeans. Racist folktales, mythologies, legends, and stories that
function in the everyday life of common people predate the 17th and 18th
centuries. For example, Christian anti-Semitism and Euro-Christian
antiblackism were rampant throughout the Middle Ages. These false
divisions of humankind were carried over to colonized Latin America
where anti-Indian racism became a fundamental pillar of colonial society
and influenced later
mestizo national development. Thus racism is as much a product of the
interaction of cultural ways of life as it is of modern capitalism. A
more adequate conception of racism should reflect this twofold context
of cultural and economic realities in which racism has flourished.
A new analysis of racism builds on the best of Marxist theory
(particularly Antonio Gramsci's focus on the cultural and ideological
spheres), and yet it goes beyond by incorporating three key assumptions:
1. Cultural practices, including racist discourses and actions, have
multiple power functions (such as domination over non-Europeans) that
are neither reducible to nor intelligible in terms of class exploitation
alone. In short these practices have a reality of their own and cannot
simply be reduced to an economic base.
2. Cultural practices are the medium through which selves are produced.
We are who and what we are owing primarily to cultural practices. The
complex process of people shaping and being shaped by cultural practices
involves the use of language, psychological factors, sexual identities,
and aesthetic conceptions that cannot be adequately grasped by a social
theory primarily focused on modes of production at the macrostructural
level.
3. Cultural practices are not simply circumscribed by modes of
production; they also are bounded by civilizations. Hence, cultural
practices cut across modes of production. (For example, there are forms
of Christianity that exist in both precapitalist and capitalist
societies.) An analysis of racist practices in both premodern and modern
Western civilization yields both continuity and discontinuity. Even
Marxism can be shown to be both critical of and captive to a
Eurocentrism that can justify racist practices. Although Marxist theory
remains indispensable, it obscures the manner in which cultural
practices, including notions of "scientific" rationality, are linked to
particular ways of life.
A common feature of the four Marxist conceptions examined earlier is
that their analyses remain on the macrostructural level. They focus on
the role and function of racism within and between significant
institutions such as the workplace and government. Any adequate
conception of racism indeed must include such a macrostructural
analysis, one that highlights the changing yet persistent forms of class
exploitation and political repression of peoples of color. But a fully
adequate analysis of racism also requires an investigation into the
genealogy and ideology of racism and a detailed microinstitutional
analysis. Such an analysis would encompass the following:
1. A genealogical inquiry into the ideology of racism, focusing on the
kinds of metaphors and concepts employed by dominant European (or white)
supremacists in various epochs in the West and on ways in which
resistance has occurred.
2. A microinstitutional or localized analysis of the mechanisms that
sustain white supremacist discourse in the everyday life of
non-Europeans (including the ideological production of certain kinds of
selves, the means by which alien and degrading normative cultural
styles, aesthetic ideals, psychosexual identities, and group perceptions
are constituted) and ways in which resistance occurs.
3. A macrostructural approach that emphasizes the class exploitation and
political repression of non-European peoples and ways in which
resistance is undertaken.
The first line of inquiry aims to examine modes of European domination
of non-European peoples; the second probes forms of European subjugation
of non-European peoples; and the third focuses on types of European
exploitation and repression of non-European peoples. These lines of
theoretical inquiry, always traversed by male supremacist and
heterosexual supremacist discourses, overlap in complex ways, and yet
each highlights a distinctive dimension of the racist practices of
European peoples vis-a-vis non-European peoples.
This analytical framework should capture the crucial characteristics of
European racism anywhere in the world. But the specific character of
racist practices in particular times and places can be revealed only by
detailed historical analyses that follow these three methodological
steps. Admittedly, this analytic approach is an ambitious one, but the
complexity of racism as a historical phenomenon demands it. Given
limited space, I shall briefly sketch the contours of each step.
For the first step-the genealogical inquiry into predominant European
supremacist discourses-there are three basic discursive logics:
Judeo-Christian, scientific, and psychosexual discourses. I am not
suggesting that these discourses are inherently racist, but rather that
they have been employed to justify racist practices. The Judeo-Christian
racist logic emanates from the Biblical account of Ham looking upon and
failing to cover his father Noah's nakedness and thereby receiving
divine punishment in the form of the blackening of his progeny. In this
highly influential narrative, black skin is a divine curse, punishing
disrespect for and rejection of paternal authority.
The scientific logic rests upon a modern philosophical discourse guided
by Greek ocular metaphors (for example Eye of the Mind) and is
undergirded by Cartesian notions of the primacy of the subject (ego,
self) and the preeminence of representation. These notions of the self
are buttressed by Baconian ideas of observation, evidence, and
confirmation which promote the activities of observing, comparing,
measuring, and ordering physical characteristics of human bodies: Given
the renewed appreciation and appropriation of classical antiquity in the
18th century, these "scientific" activities of observation were
regulated by classical aesthetic and cultural norms (Greek lips, noses,
and so forth). Within this logic, notions of black ugliness, cultural
deficiency, and intellectual inferiority are legitimated by the
value-laden yet prestigious authority of "science, "especially in the
18th and 19th centuries. The purposeful distortion of "scientific"
procedures to further racist hegemony has an important history of its
own. The persistent use of pseudoscientific "research" to buttress
racist ideology, even when the intellectual integrity of the
"scientific" position has been severely eroded, illustrates how racist
ideology can incorporate and use/abuse science.
The psychosexual racist logic arises from the phallic obsessions,
Oedipal projections, and anal-sadistic orientations in European cultures
which endow non-European (especially African) men and women with sexual
prowess; view nonEuropeans as either cruel revengeful fathers, frivolous
carefree children, or passive long-suffering mothers; and identify
non-Europeans (especially black people) with dirt, odious smell, and
feces. In short, non-Europeans are associated with acts of bodily
defecation, violation, and subordination. Within this logic,
non-Europeans are walking abstractions, inanimate objects, or invisible
creatures. Within all three white supremacist logics-which operate
simultaneously and affect the perceptions of both Europeans and
non-Europeans-black, brown, yellow, and red peoples personify Otherness
and embody alien Difference.
The aim of this first step is to show how these white supremacist logics
are embedded in philosophies of identity that suppress difference,
diversity and heterogeneity. Since such discourses impede the
realization of the democratic socialist ideals of genuine individuality
and radical democracy, they must be criticized and opposed. But critique
and opposition should be based on an understanding of the development
and internal workings of these discourses-how they dominate the
intellectual life of the modern West and thereby limit the chances for
less racist, less ethnocentric discourses to flourish.
The second step-microinstitutional or localized analysis -examines the
operation of white supremacist logics within the everyday lives of
people in particular historical contexts. In the case of Afro-Americans,
this analysis would include the ways in which "colored," "Negro," and
"black" identities were created against a background of both fear and
terror and a persistent history of resistance that gave rise to open
rebellion in the 1960s. Such an analysis must include the extraordinary
and equivocal role of evangelical Protestant Christianity (which both
promoted and helped
contain black resistance) and the blend of African and U. S. southern
AngloSaxon Protestants and French Catholics from which emerged
distinctive Afro-American cultural styles, language, and aesthetic
values.
The objective of this second step is to show how the various white
supremacist discourses shape non-European self-identities, influence
psychosexual sensibilities, and help set the context for oppositional
(but also co-optable) nonEuropean cultural manners and mores. This
analysis also reveals how the oppression and cultural domination of
Native Americans, Chicanos, Puerto Ricans, and other colonized people
differ significantly (while sharing many common features) from that of
Afro-Americans. Analyses of internal colonialism, national oppression,
and cultural imperialism have particular significance in explaining the
territorial displacement and domination that confront these peoples.
The third step-macrostructural analysis-discloses the role and function
of class exploitation and political repression and how racist practices
buttress them. This step resembles traditional Marxist theories of
racism, which focus primarily on institutions of economic production and
secondarily on the state and public and private bureaucracies. But the
nature of this focus is modified in that econmic production is no longer
viewed as the sole or major source of racist practices. Rather it is
seen as a crucial source among others. To put it somewhat crudely, the
capitalist mode of production constitutes just one of the significant
structural constraints determining what forms racism takes in a
particular historical period. Other key structural constraints include
the state, bureaucratic modes of control, and the cultural practices of
ordinary people. The specific forms that racism takes depend on choices
people make
within these structural constraints. In this regard, history is neither
deterministic nor arbitrary; rather it is an open-ended sequence of
(progressive or regressive) structured social practices over time and
space. Thus the third analytical step, while preserving important
structural features of Marxism such as the complex interaction of the
economic, political, cultural, and ideological spheres of life, does not
privilege a priori the economic sphere as a means of explaining other
spheres of human experience. But this viewpoint still affirms that class
exploitation and state repression do take place, especially in the lives
of non-Europeans in modern capitalist societies.
Racism in the American Past and Present
This analytical framework should help explain how racism has operated
throughout United States history. It focuses on the predominant form
racism takes in the three major historical configurations of modern
capitalism: industrial capitalism, monopoly capitalism, and
multinational corporate capitalism. It is worth noting that although we
have been critical of Marxist explanations of racist practices, Marxist
theory remains highly illuminating and provides the best benchmarks for
periodizing modern history.
U.S. industrial capitalism was, in part, the fruit of black slavery in
America. The lucrative profits from cotton and tobacco production in the
slave-ridden U.S. South contributed greatly to the growth of
manufacturing (especially textiles) in the U. S. North. The industrial
capitalist order in the North not only rested indirectly upon the
productive labor of black slaves in the South, it also penetrated the
South after the Civil War along with white exploitation and repression
of former black slaves. In addition, U.S. industrial capitalism was
consolidated only after the military conquest and geographical
containment of indigenous and Mexican peoples and the exploitation of
Asian contract laborers. On the cultural level, black, brown, yellow,
and red identities were reinforced locally, reflecting the defensive and
>deferential positions of victims who had only limited options for
effective resistance. For example, this period is the age of the
"colored" identity of Africans in the United States.
The advent of the American empire helped usher in U. S. monopoly
capitalism. Given both the absence of a strong centralized state and a
relatively unorganized working class, widespread centralization of the
capitalist economy occurred principally in the form of monopolies,
trusts, and holding companies. As the United States took over the last
remnants of the Spanish empire (for example, in Puerto Rico, the
Philippines, and Guam) and expanded its economic presence in South
America, U. S. racist ideology flourished. Jim Crow laws-consciously
adopted models for apartheid in South Africa-were instituted throughout
the South. Exclusionary immigration laws-supported by the lily white
American Federation of Labor-were enacted, and reservations
("homelands") were set up for indigenous peoples. Mexican and indigenous
peoples were removed from their lands through the use of force and by
the courts. A settler colonial regime was established in the Southwest
to oversee the extraction of raw materials and to subject the Mexican
population.
At the same time, America opened its arms to the European "masses
yearning to be free," principally because of a labor-shortage in the
booming urban industrial centers. In this period, a small yet
significant black middle class began to set up protest organizations
such as the NAACP, National Urban League, and the National Federation of
Afro-American Women. Limited patronage networks were established for
black middle-class enhancement (for example, Booker T. Washington's
"machine"). This period is the age of the "Negro" identity of Africans
in the United States. Some influential
blacks were permitted limited opportunities to prosper and thereby seen
as models of success for the black masses to emulate. Despite its
courageous efforts on behalf of black progress, the NAACP in this period
could not help but seen as a vehicle for severely constricted black
gains. The NAACP was defiant in rhetoric; liberal in vision, legalistic
in practice, and headed by elements of the black middle class which
often influenced the interests of the organization.
The emergence of the United States as the preeminent world power after
World War II provided the framework for the growth of multinational
corporate capitalism. The devastation of Europe (including the weakening
of its vast empires), the defeat of Japan, and the tremendous sacrifice
of lives and destruction of industry in the Soviet Union facilitated
U.S. world hegemony. U. S. corporate penetration into European markets
(opened and buttressed by the Marshall Plan), Asian markets, some
African markets, and, above all, Latin American markets set the stage
for unprecedented U. S. economic prosperity. This global advantage,
along with technological
innovation, served as the hidden background for the so-called American
Way of Life-a life of upward social mobility leading to material comfort
and convenience. Only in the postwar era did significant numbers of the
U.S. white middle class participate in this dream.
Aware of its image as leader of the "free world" (and given the growing
sensitivity to racism in the aftermath of the holocaust), the U.S.
government began to respond cautiously to the antiracist resistance at
home. This response culminated in the Brown v. Board of Education school
desegregation decision (1954) and the Civil Rights and Voting Rights
Acts of 1964 and 1965 respectively. The ramifications of the court
decision and legislation affected all peoples of color (and white women)
but had the greatest impact on those able to move up the social ladder
primarily by means of education. As a result, the current period of U.S.
multinational
corporate capitalism has witnessed the growth of a significant middle
class of peoples of color. Overt racist language-even under the Reagan
administration-has become unfashionable; coded racist language
expressing hostility to "affirmative action, " "busing, " and "special
interests" has now replaced overt racist discourse.
As the legal barriers of segregation have been torn down, the underclass
of black and brown working and poor people at the margins of society has
grown. For the expanding middle class of people of color, political
disenfranchisement and job discrimination have been considerably
reduced. But, simultaneously, a more insidious form of class and racial
stratification intensified-educational inequality. In an increasingly
technological society, rural and inner city schools for people of color
and many working class and poor whites serve to reproduce the present
racial and class stratified structure of society. Children of the poor,
who are disproportionately people of color, are tracked into an
impoverished educational system and then face unequal opportunities when
they enter the labor force (if steady, meaningful employment is even a
possibility).
In the past decade, American multinational corporate capitalism has
undergone a deep crisis, owing primarily to increased competition with
Japanese, European, and even some Third World corporations; a rise in
energy costs brought about by the OPEC cartel; the precarious structure
of international debt owed to American and European banks by Third World
countries; and victorious anticolonial struggles that limit lucrative
capital investments somewhat. The response of the Reagan administration
to this crisis has been, in part, to curtail the public sector by
cutting back federal transfer payments to the needy, diminishing
occupational health and safety and environmental protection, increasing
low wage service sector jobs, and granting tax incentives and giveaways
to large corporations. Those most adversely affected by these policies
have been blue collar industrial workers and the poor, particularly
women and children. Thus Reagan's policies, which are often supported by
the coded racist language of the religious right and secular
neoconservatives, are racist in consequence. Poor women and children are
disproportionately
people of color, and jobs in the "rust belt" industries of auto and
steel played a major role in black social mobility in the postwar
period.
Socialism and Antiracism: Two Inseparable Yet Not Identical Goals
It should be apparent that racist practices directed against black,
brown, yellow, and red people are an integral element of U. S. history,
including present day American culture and society. This means not
simply that Americans have inherited racist attitudes and prejudices,
but, more importantly, that institutional forms of racism are embedded
in American society in both visible and invisible ways. These
institutional forms exist not only in remnants of de jure job, housing,
and educational discrimination and political gerrymandering. They also
manifest themselves in a de facto labor market segmentation, produced by
the exclusion of large numbers of peoples of color from the
socioeconomic mainstream. (This exclusion results from limited
educational opportunities, devastated families, a disproportionate
presence in the prison population, and widespread police brutality.)
It also should be evident that past Marxist conceptions of racism have
often prevented U. S. socialist movements from engaging in antiracist
activity in a serious and consistent manner. In addition, black
suspicion of white-dominated political movements (no matter how
progressive) as well as the distance between these movements and the
daily experiences of peoples of color have made it even more difficult
to fight racism effectively. Furthermore, the disproportionate white
middle-class composition of contemporary democratic socialist
organizations creates cultural barriers to the participation by peoples
of color. Yet this very participation is a vital precondition for
greater white sensitivity to antiracist struggle and to white
acknowledgment of just how crucial antiracist struggle is to the U. S.
socialist movement. Progressive organizations often find themselves
going around in a vicious circle. Even when they have a great interest
in antiracist struggle, they are unable to attract a critical mass of
people of color because of their current predominately white racial and
cultural composition. These organizations are then stereotyped as lily
white, and significant numbers of people of color refuse to join.
The only effective way the contemporary democratic socialist movement
can break out of this circle (and it is possible because the bulk of
democratic socialists are among the least racist of Americans) is to be
sensitized to the critical importance of antiracist struggles. This
conscientization cannot take place either by reinforcing agonized white
consciences by means of guilt, nor by presenting another grand
theoretical analysis with no practical implications. The former breeds
psychological paralysis among white progressives, which is unproductive
for all of us; the latter yields important discussions but often at the
expense of concrete political engagement. Rather what is needed is more
widespread participation by predominantly white democratic socialist
organizations in antiracist struggles-whether those struggles be for the
political, economic, and cultural empowerment of Latinos, blacks,
Asians, and Native Americans or antiimperialist struggles against U.S.
support for oppressive
regimes in South Africa, Chile, the Philippines, and the occupied West
Bank.
A major focus on antiracist coalition work will not only lead democratic
socialists to act upon their belief in genuine individuality and radical
democracy for people around the world; it also will put socialists in
daily contact with peoples of color in common struggle. Bonds of trust
can be created only within concrete contexts of struggle. This
interracial interaction guarantees neither love nor friendship. Yet it
can yield more understanding and the realization of two overlapping
goals-democratic socialism and antiracism. While engaging in antiracist
struggles, democratic socialists can also enter into a dialogue on the
power relationships and misconceptions that often emerge in multiracial
movements for social justice in a racist society. Honest and trusting
coalition work can help socialists unlearn Eurocentrism in a
self-critical manner and can also demystify the motivations of white
progressives in the
movement for social justice.
We must frankly acknowledge that a democratic socialist society will not
necessarily eradicate racism. Yet a democratic socialist society is the
best hope for alleviating and minimizing racism, particularly
institutional forms of racism. This conclusion depends on a candid
evaluation that guards against utopian self-deception. But it also
acknowledges the deep moral commitment on the part of democratic
socialists of all races to the dignity of all individuals and peoples-a
commitment that impels us to fight for a more libertarian and
egalitarian society. Therefore concrete antiracist struggle is both an
ethical imperative and political necessity for democratic socialists. It
is even more urgent as once again racist policies and Third World
intervention become more acceptable to many Americans. A more effective
democratic socialist movement engaged in antiracist and antiimperialist
struggle can help turn the tide. It depends on how well we understand
the past and present, how courageously we act, and how true we remain to
our democratic socialist ideals of freedom, equality, and democracy.
__________________________________________________________________
Cornel West is an Honorary Chair of the Democratic Socialists of
America, who serves on the DSA National Political Committee and is a
participant in its African-American Commission.
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