[Marxism] Notes on David Brion Davis' review

[Austin, Andrew]

-----Original Message-----
From: marxism-bounces at lists.econ.utah.edu
[mailto:marxism-bounces at lists.econ.utah.edu] On Behalf Of Rakesh
Bhandari
Sent: Monday, October 30, 2006 1:22 AM
To: marxism at lists.econ.utah.edu
Subject: [Marxism] Notes on David Brion Davis' review

Andrew, racism is a specific kind of belief about why over time and in
what way human groups remain essentially different. Racism is premised
on the belief of the intergenerational transmission of a postulated
germinal substance and belief in the deep 'genetic' differences between
groups of people.

Active racism depends on conscious or unconscious racist belief, and
ideas believed to be real are indeed real in their effects. But racism
is not mind independent, though the past effects of racism are not
eradicated by colorblindness in the present. For this reason, it makes
sense to speak of colorblind racism.

But class exploitation does not depend on a belief in classes. Indeed
class exploitation is achieved in bourgeois society by the real
dissimulation of classes in the contractual relations of juridically
equal bearer of rights.

* * *

You're wrong.  A person need not be any more conscious of "belief of the
intergenerational transmission of a postulated germinal substance and
belief in the deep 'genetic' differences between groups of people" to
reproduce the caste structure than a person need be conscious of a
"belief in the relation to the means of production determines one's
class" to reproduce the class.  Racism is an objective social practice,
sometimes manifest in consciousness, other times not.  That is, race
discrimination does not depend on race prejudice.  Segmentation by race
is real, whether you recognize people by their skin color, hair texture,
and so forth, or not.  Rakesh, people are actually located in physical
and social space differentially from one another in racial caste
systems.  This is what makes race-neutrality ideology so effective in
perpetuating and entrenching racism: it stops people from thinking about
race - just as equality before the law dissimulates class relations.  It
is the goal of the social observer to discover all the ways race (and
class) affects collective existence.  Your argument is not about racism
but about race ideology.  That is only part of racism.  Your definition
is therefore inadequate.  Indeed, such a definition, if we follow the
logic, leads to the absurd conclusion that if we stop thinking and
talking about race it will dissapear.  You want to call these "past
effects of racism."  Wrong.  People experience the present effects of
racism.  It is when we become fully conscious of race and act to abolish
the caste system that we begin to dismantle the structure of racism.
Apartheid is not just de jure.