An Analysis of Racial Capitalist Stratification in The Black Reconstruction
In the Black Worker, WEB DuBois details the history of black disenfranchisement. I especially appreciated DuBois’ depictions of the ways that land was the systematic barrier before the vote became racialized. His analysis of the psychological effects of enslavement acknowledged the realities of an experience that was not always brutal, but dehumanizing by definition. To DuBois, and in the perspective of the formerly enslaved, bondage is bondage no matter the condition. Its definition requires your exploitation and the generational enslavement of Africans in the US further intensifies that exploitation a psychological level. The major difference between the enslaved and the unpaid labor was the lack of autonomy. In this analysis, the proletariat white laborer’s vanity was stroked by overseeing the enslaved, allowing the poor white worker to align with their oppressor. I also enjoyed DuBois’ point that dictated that the exploitation of black people in the US set the basis for international racialized labor exploitation. As such, addressing black labor issues opens the door for international labor exploitation.
In the White Worker, DuBois details the labor struggle of the white laborer. He posits that White proles flock to the US for opportunity of economic social mobility, but are forced to compete with the enslaved labor force in the South and the North. In a system that profits off of free self producing labor, black slaves were often scapegoated by whites for the US’ low labor pay. Furthermore, the fact that white immigrant workers could negotiate the terms of their contracts ironically fueled the hatred they had for the enslaved. In this ironic partnership, White immigrants side with the Democratic (Planter Class) for two reasons. First, they could negotiate with the employers better through the creation of unions, and they could make their cases against competing with slave labor. When immigrants move West, they see some free Negros and the expansion of slavery to the West. These factors threaten them because of what they experience in the North and South. DuBois further argues that White immigrants don’t understand that the enslaved were a much more formidable competitor than the freed black person. In their misunderstanding they create two separate labor movements; one for abolition and one for free land reform. Under the impression that the two are unrelated, white labor movements actively avoid addressing slavery. Additionally, black people are excluded from labor unions; a practice that would continue through the Modern Civil Rights Movement. Even more curious, White southern laborers were ignored by all of the organizations having debate surrounding labor. This included northern abolitionists, socialist labor movements, northern capitalists and southern planters. In the end, DuBois concludes that all hope for a white proletariat revolt against the planter class was thwarted by the poor whites’ hatred of black people. However this paradoxical position was forced to be confronted in the dawn of the Civil War. The white proletariat class was confronted with the following question: Do you fight for the capitalists that make your life hell or the enslaved people you scapegoat?
DuBois’ analysis has many applications to modern late stage racial capital. It is often the most exploited members of white society who hold the most vitriol and jealousy for Black Americans. The work that DuBois has created in this text lays the groundwork for what would follow centuries later in the American South especially. This is perhaps best exemplified by the behavior of the most passionate Trump supporters, who often scapegoat Black Americans and Mexican immigrants for a lack of job availability in the USA.
