Class and Race: unrelated or inseparable?

Jasmin Schneider, Year 13, Gellhorn

Since the death of George Floyd in May of 2020, The ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement has not only resurfaced but become ever more prominent. First coined by Twitter users in 2013, the slogan delivers a powerful message of defiance. As much as the movement is about striving for equality and seeking justice from its oppressors, it is also about the acknowledgement of systemic factors that have created America’s ‘Black underclass’, and more importantly, perpetuated a system of persecution against them.

How has our past, of systems based on class exploitation, shaped the phenomena of racism and classism today? In the US, race and class are undoubtedly linked. The history of oppression of African Americans — from explicit acts of slavery and segregation, to today’s more insidious forms of racism — has created a system in which, more often than not, Black lives lose out. The world was shocked by the statistics that showed Black individuals were twice as likely to be killed by a police officer while unarmed compared to White individuals. Higher levels of poverty, unemployment, incarceration and poorer educational outcomes for African Americans are just a few further consequences of the inequality generated by the system.

This deeply rooted history of racism has enabled some to justify the notion that Black Americans are, both socially and economically, second class citizens. The most prominent economic divides are seen in measurements of household wealth, reflecting the history of marginalisation that has made it difficult for Black people to achieve economic security. According to a Brookings Institution study from 2016, the net worth of an average White family is nearly ten times that of the average Black household, and nearly one in five Black households have debts that exceed their assets. Yet it is important to note that wealth still does not protect Black Americans against inequality. A study from the Equality of Opportunity Project found that Black boys who had grown up in some of the highest income households and neighbourhoods in the US still earned less than White boys who had grown up in similar circumstances. The same group of Black boys were also twice as likely to end up in poverty, compared to their White counterparts. Most Black individuals who start life in lower income households remain that way throughout adulthood, whilst more than two in three of their White peers will escape the poverty of their youth. Many argue that education is the key to opportunity and success, yet racial disparities persist even amongst Black individuals with the highest levels of education. It is these hard hitting facts that explain the phenomena of Black individuals having to ‘work twice as hard’ just to make ends meet.

Still, the link between race and class can be difficult to interpret. The systems that brought slavery to the New World undoubtebly laid a pathway for the classism we see today. Turning to Africa as a continent, it is sometimes argued that their lack of economic experiments early on was due to their inability to act in their own self-interest, when really it was the consequence of European colonialism and then post independence African governments that halted their development. Take the Kingdom of Kongo in the 15th century: the reason they did not innovate or adopt agricultural technologies, such as the wheel and plow, was because they lacked the incentives to do so. They faced the risk of having all of their output seized and taxed by the King. At the same time, many people were being captured and sold as slaves, which was hardly the environment in which to be encouraging increases in long-term productivity.

Even for the King, exporting slaves was much more profitable. Slaves were systematically oppressed, stereotyped and segregated without ever being given a chance at their own life. The abolishment of slavery in the US in 1865 was arguably far too little, too late. The legacy of ill treatment of Africans had already become a way of life, which was then passed on to the next generations. The question facing many people nowadays is whether to use your ‘White privilege’ solely for personal gain or to support those who are less ‘privileged’ for the common good.

It becomes evident that, as a result of this historical prejudice and centuries of racial oppression, the foundations of inequality were built on the idea of Black individuals belonging under the powerful White man.

Over time, these ideas have also spawned classism and social inequality, which coupled with racism has rendered Black individuals powerless in changing their social status, regardless of their true background. However, it should still be pointed out that although the relative poverty rate for Black Americans is a high 20.8%, the figure for White Americans still sits at 8.1%*. There are unquestionably other factors that have helped further polarise the class divide today for both Black and White individuals, but these are borne predominantly by individual circumstance including the issue of inheritance, educational outcomes, geographical and occupational immobility and the wider question of wealth distribution. These factors can all, in some way, contribute to the varying standards of living faced by individuals.

The events of history are, without a doubt, significant in shaping the economic and social inequalities we see amongst different communities around the world, particularly the Black community, today. However, they are not totally to blame for the worsening issues of wealth disparity and poverty in present-day society. The Black Lives Matter movement has a number of economic goals such as reparations for slavery and disinvestment from institutions that criminalize and harm the Black community. It is also highly encouraging to see people looking to the future and calling for other measures, such as increased spending on education and social safety nets, which aim to create a more just and equitable society for everyone. At the end of the day, there is no one man we can blame for the creation and continuation of this oppressive system, no one way to dismantle class discrimination, and no one solution that will put the growing issue of racism to bed. The least we can do is acknowledge the history and facts that have come to shape today’s societal structures, and to continue to strive for a better, more just and equal one.