Two people I respect recently said things that bother me. One claimed I think race is not an issue in the USA; the other said he disagreed with my take on racism and capitalism.
If I’ve ever said something as idiotic as “Racism is over” or “race doesn’t matter” or anything to suggest that race is irrelevant, please quote me so I can figure out what drugs I was on when I said that.
As for racism and capitalism, I agree with a great number of people who noticed that the pseudo-scientific theory of race was promoted at the same time slavery was limited to blacks, and I believe that the situation has changed dramatically today, when a black woman is our Secretary of State and a black man is one of the two millionaires who have a realistic chance of becoming the Democratic candidate for president. What’s to disagree with? Is it my belief that capitalism does not require racism? All capitalism needs is cheap labor—racism is one way to exploit workers, but it’s hardly the only way.
When I say that class is the greatest issue in the US, I am not saying that racial or gender issues are small. They’re enormous. I’m only saying class issues are even greater. It doesn’t mean I don’t care about other issues. Humans can care about more than one thing at a time, especially when those things are related as intimately as race, gender, and class.
Consider the response to your idea that class issues are greater than race issues in the light that some race activists are heavily invested in the idea that the only meaningful issue in the US is race, and that people who are oppressed by class or gender roles or religion (etc.) do not know what real/true/actual oppression is like and should not discuss it. Especially white men.
Notably, these same folks also usually claim, “We can’t compare suffering. Suffering is suffering,” but then move directly into discussing how their suffering trumps the suffering of everyone else because no one privileged by the system in any way (via the white person’s Invisible Knapsack) can understand the complete oppression caused by racism.
The position is nonsense — though understandably born of deep emotional and social scarring — but it might help explain the adverse reaction you’ve encountered to the idea that anything might be more devastating, problematic, important, or oppressive than race issues. It explains why some may find it a contentious idea (if they do not simply call it an example of your hidden racism).
The reaction may also be a false either-or switch being flipped due to hasty generalizations on the listener’s part, that is, “If he says class is a larger problem than race, then he’s saying race isn’t a problem at all!” Actually a very common human response when deeply emotional or personally important issues are discussed, where an examination or reevaluation is (incorrectly) perceived as a dismissal of the issue.
I see the same quite commonly in many other communities, such as in discussions of tabletop gaming and common problems that occur with the social power dynamics at the table, with some listeners reacting and responding as though the speaker has just stabbed a knife into the heart of gaming and is calling all players mewling sheep and all game masters evil control freaks.
Greyorm, I do get frustrated by people who interpret a nuanced response as a binary one. Binarianism may be the greatest problem facing humanity. Okay, it’s greed, but binarianism combined with greed had led to all of humanity’s follies.
And fear. *grin*
Fear combined with greed combined with binariansim.
And bad reality shows.
Bad reality shows combined with fear combined with…
Teflon.
Okay, maybe not.
Hrm, on reflection perhaps it is not because they really think you’re dismissing race, but because the idea that race is the uber-issue — due to media presentation and cultural expectations — is highly prevalent in the American psyche and it thus comes as a bit of a shock that it might not be. It bumps up against the subconscious perception — some sort of invisible notion you take for granted — to the contrary and causes a “What? I’m confused! That doesn’t seem right!” reaction.
Which is sort of binarianism, but less overtly.