Poor White People and Racism. WTF?
“The links between capitalism and racism have also been well documented. It is a little recognized fact that the breakdown of union power in the late 1960s was facilitated, in part, by the racial tensions that spread through heavily unionized industries (especially steel and automotive) in the wake of pushes to desegregate the unions. Working class whites have always been the most vocally racist group in America, so much so that they have often been willing to sacrifice politically and economically advantageous class alliances in favor of racial alliances that would disempower their collective bargaining power. This is a trend that has long been favorable to the perpetuation of a divided working class, which is also now split along the lines of gender, sexual orientation, immigration status, etc. This leaves those who are most exploited in a fragmented state, unable to stand up against a relatively unified ruling class. How can workers fight for their rights when they are fighting against each other?”
The passage above comes from Zack Stein’s post, Connecting The Dots Between Ferguson And Wall Street: Inequality Breeds Violence. It’s a good read and the observation he makes above is particularly relevant to my experience.
Spending late childhood and adolescence in a poor/working class part of Northeast Pennsylvania’s (NEPA) anthracite coal mining region, one thing I could never understand was the vehement racism I encountered coming from poor white people who, ironically enough, were the decedents of immigrants who came to NEPA to toil away in hellish coal mines for pitiful wages. They really did seem to be willing to sacrifice political and economic advantages that would come from allying themselves with other working class people in favor of racial alliances that would ultimately do nothing but keep them oppressed, sad, hateful, and ignorant.
It really has become more and more obvious to me over the years that liberation theologians like Ignacio Ellacuría, Gustavo Gutiérrez, Margaret Wedgwood Benn, Dorothy Day, James Cone, and so many others, got it right when they say that God is, and always will be, on the side of the poor AND oppressed. Jesus says it pretty well too: “The Spirit of the LORD is upon me, for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free,” (Luke 4:18) and “Anyone who isn’t with me opposes me, and anyone who isn’t working with me is actually working against me” (Matthew 12:30). Amen.
Michelle Alexander touches on this in The New Jim Crow. Part of the reason that Reconstruction failed was because upper class whites worked hard to divide working class whites and African Americans, who enjoyed a certain amount of unity. Part of the propaganda involved painting African Americans as job stealers and rapists looking to take what little the working class whites had. Unfortunately, this picture seems to have stuck in the minds of working class whites.
In a way, such xenophobic mindsets are a method of protection against perceived invaders. As the son of former working class whites, I see where it comes from. When you already have almost no food and can't pay the electric bill, you get mad at the people who you think are at fault, in this case, the person who has your job today. However, what they ought to do, in the words of country singer James McMurtry, is hate the men who sent the jobs away.
Awesome comment, Patrick! Thank you for this. I love Michelle Alexander. She makes an astute observation for sure. Like I said in the post, I experienced this xenophobia very much in coal mining country. I have a lot of hope that as prophetic voices like Michelle's and James Cone's and other liberation thinkers are being lifted up more and more, people will find their way back to God, like Israel did over and over in Scripture.