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

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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

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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
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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.

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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

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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.

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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

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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!

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Questions or Comments?