The RaceClass Nexus: An Intersectional Perspective

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The RaceClass Nexus: An Intersectional Perspective

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Title: The RaceClass Nexus: An Intersectional Perspective

1
The Race/Class Nexus An Intersectional
Perspective

john a. powell
Williams Chair in Civil Rights Civil Liberties,
Moritz College of Law.
Director, Kirwan Institute
Feb. 16, 2007

2
The Unhelpful Question

Is it race or is it class?
Looking at our psychological motivation
Looking at our institutional Arrangements and
Meaning

3
Overview

What is Race? What is Class?
Dualism, Reductionism and Mutual Causality
Race and Class as Mutually Constitutive
Structural View
Targeted Universalism

4
Race and Class

What do we mean by Race?
Biological
Racial Essence
Social Construction
What is meant by Class?
Income
Social Status
Wealth

5
Conceptual Schemes

Our conceptual schemes tend to be normatively
hierarchical and dualistic.
Example Eternal is ranked higher and more
real than temporal.
Karl Jaspers, writing in 1953, noticed that
between 800 and 200 BC the valorization of the
transcendental world occurred simultaneously in
Greece, the Middle East, India, and China.
Jasper thought that this development was so
important he called it the Axial Age.

6
Dualism and Reductionism

Many assume that racial disparities can be best
addressed through class measures and vice-versa
or, that one can be reduced to the other.
Marxism
Critical Race Theory

7
From Dualism and Reductionism to Mutual Causality

On the Mind-Body duality
Like two sides of a coin, or the inside and
outside of a house, they correspond and are
inseparable, but they never meet. Mutual
Causality in Buddhism and General Systems Theory
Dualism is unwarranted because of the
inseparability involved and reductionism is
fallacious because of their distinctiveness.

8
Present Racism Model

The tripartite model
Victim/perpetrator
Prejudice (bad actor/ bad apple)
Disparity
It does not sufficiently explain current
inequalities nor grapple with the complex work
that racial and ethnic identity do within the
larger society.

9
Race and Class as Mutually Constitutive

Racial meaning, identity and practices have
constrained, helped shape and limit our class
consciousness.
One of the reasons that America is exceptional in
lacking a labor party, having a weak union
movement and a thin, two-tiered social welfare
system is the way that we do race.
Example Race and Social Welfare Spending
(Alesina and Glaeser)

10
Race and Class

Racialized systems not only impact institutional
arrangements but also particular institutions,
such as unions, with consequences for the entire
society.
Example Race and Taft-Hartley. Southern
Democrats, concerned that low unemployment and
booming industry after WWII might cause wage
leveling along racial lines, flipped their vote.
The result was Taft-Hartley.

11
Structural Racism.

In looking at the work that institutions perform
in our society, we have to have a view of
causation that recognizes that in structures,
causation is often interactive between
institutions and cumulative. Cultural Meaning
Independent/federalism

12
Institutional Interaction
13
Hurricane Katrina

Why were African American and poor neighborhoods
impacted the most from Katrina?
The dynamics of spatial inequity, combined with
patterns of racial segregation
Flood risk in New Orleans was not equitably
distributed and followed historical patterns of
segregation in the City

After levee breaks, the Ninth ward rapidly floods
in New Orleans. Photo by Ted Jackson/NEWHOUSE
NEWS SERVICE)
Evacuees sit stranded in the streets outside the
Convention Center of New Orleans in the aftermath
of Hurricane Katrina September 3, 2005.
REUTERS/SHANNON STAPLETON
14
Whats the Solution?Transactional v.
Transformative Interventions

A transformative intervention is one that works
to permanently transform structural arrangements.
A transactional intervention, on the other hand,
is one that may impact outcomes across several
domains but does not fundamentally change the way
structures and institutions operate.

15
Whats the Solution?

Dual/interactive
Identity/Economic
As long as they think they are white, there is
no hope for them.
-- James Badlwin

16
Universalism v. Particularism

Universalism takes people as they are. It is a
transactional intervention.
GI Bill
N.J. Fair Share
Targeting within Universalism

17
Targeting within Universalism

Combines a call for the universal with attention
to the particular experience of minority
Americans.
Supports the needs of the particular while
reminding us that we are all part of the same
social fabric.
Rejects a blanket universal which is likely to be
indifferent to the reality that different groups
are situated differently related to the
institutions and resources of society.
It rejects the claim of formal equality that
would treat all people the same as a way of
denying difference.

18
A New Paradigm

What is our alternative vision?
A model where we all grow together
A model where we embrace collective solutions
Where race is experienced and addressed in a
different way
No longer using race to divide and distract from
class struggle
Using race to transform our society in a way that
lifts up all people

19
Concluding Thoughts

Be deliberate about building coalition
Through a new paradigm and with coalition
building we can make great strides in addressing
the race and class disparities in our nation
Strategic transactional change, can ultimately
accomplish transformation
Eyes on the prize(s)
Remember- We Have, and Can Make Progress!

20
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