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The Political Economy of Racism
A lucid and vibrant contribution to the field of urban studies, tracing the connections between radical urban theory and political activism.
420 pages, Hardcover
First published June 28, 1993
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
March 27, 2017
Pretty thorough book. Melvin Leiman traces how racism functions within capitalist society. Leiman is a class reductionist, I personally am not, which does lead to some statements made that are ultimately frustrating & seem tone deaf but it doesn't take away from the majority of the information & history dispensed in this book.
He starts by tracing the history of how racism functioned throughout the different stages of capitalism in the United States. This understanding of different stages & what's necessary for social control that stabilizes the system is key as it definitely helps highlight things we ultimately see as progress that are really only concessions made by those in power as they don't challenge their goal of maximizing profits.
From there, he covers the economic benefits of racism, which overwhelmingly benefit the capitalist class significantly more than the white working class. It's a point I don't think anyone has ever been inclined to argue against or address as it not actually benefitting working class whites did not at all stop them from falling prey to it as a form of social control diverting their energy & attention away from the propertied capitalist class. This is all too often used as an excuse to say the working class isn't racist & hasn't been overwhelmingly so. No one ever said their racism was logical. He goes on to point out as we moved onto later stages of capitalism, going from local/competitive to monopoly/national, that moving to the latter meant that discrimination depending on the sector of labor wasn't as beneficial. This, however, doesn't mean capitalists are any less racist, but that doesn't stop him from trying to say they are. And he even contradicts that at different points by admitting this. And where they chose to discriminate depended on whether you were talking about skilled(typically those from higher education performing administrative type jobs) or unskilled labor. This is an important distinction. Monopoly capitalism makes discrimination in unskilled labor unnecessary at least as far as them promoting it but they do discriminate when it comes to skilled labor. They employ it where it benefits them the most, doesn't make them any less prejudiced or racist & this shouldn't be a difficult concept to grasp.
Leiman talks about the talking points of conservatism & liberalism in regards to racism & what to do about them. The flaws in conservatism should be painfully obvious to most at this point but wait, there's more, he also lays waste to liberalism, demonstrating it's limitations & how they are ultimately pro-capitalist at the end of the day.
He talks about black nationalism, black capitalism, how both have connected with separatism, then black radicalism. I share the sentiment that black radicalism is necessary & key. He ultimately tries to excuse the racism of the white working class, placing the onus to fix this rift between the white working class & the black working class on black people. With or without a class consciousness, the black working class has ultimately been turned away more often than not by the white working class because of their racism. Anyone from the white working class that believes there needs to be solidarity between the two, needs to collect their people. They are the reason black people were willing to be scabs during their strikes or ultimately formed their own unions because white labor has historically been racist. They need to fix that, not black labor. Without that, black people will ultimately form their own groups, which are not without their limitations.
He does talk about class divisions within the black community. The black middle & upper classes, though not in the same position as their white counterparts, are significantly better off than the masses & they tend to act as a conservative force within any black movements in which they are included.
Until white labor fixes itself & these class divisions within the black community are acknowledged, any potential revolutionary force is just that, potential. Capitalism does inadvertently provide the tools & conditions necessary to unite the working class, it will not happen automatically. Racism had been a very efficient form of social control & that always has to be accounted for.
There is a final chapter that talks about gender but there wasn't much to it & likely needs a book on its own. He acknowledges that to get to class warfare, one must acknowledge & grapple with the issues of gender & race but feels they are subservient to class. I disagree as patriarchy & prejudice precede the existence of capitalism, they are institutionalized within the existence of the latter & in their being linked, I don't think they are subservient. Solely focusing on one, regardless of which, leads us nowhere. They are intertwined.
Overall, it's pretty good book to take you through the ins & outs of how racism has functioned & evolved in this capitalist society.
He starts by tracing the history of how racism functioned throughout the different stages of capitalism in the United States. This understanding of different stages & what's necessary for social control that stabilizes the system is key as it definitely helps highlight things we ultimately see as progress that are really only concessions made by those in power as they don't challenge their goal of maximizing profits.
From there, he covers the economic benefits of racism, which overwhelmingly benefit the capitalist class significantly more than the white working class. It's a point I don't think anyone has ever been inclined to argue against or address as it not actually benefitting working class whites did not at all stop them from falling prey to it as a form of social control diverting their energy & attention away from the propertied capitalist class. This is all too often used as an excuse to say the working class isn't racist & hasn't been overwhelmingly so. No one ever said their racism was logical. He goes on to point out as we moved onto later stages of capitalism, going from local/competitive to monopoly/national, that moving to the latter meant that discrimination depending on the sector of labor wasn't as beneficial. This, however, doesn't mean capitalists are any less racist, but that doesn't stop him from trying to say they are. And he even contradicts that at different points by admitting this. And where they chose to discriminate depended on whether you were talking about skilled(typically those from higher education performing administrative type jobs) or unskilled labor. This is an important distinction. Monopoly capitalism makes discrimination in unskilled labor unnecessary at least as far as them promoting it but they do discriminate when it comes to skilled labor. They employ it where it benefits them the most, doesn't make them any less prejudiced or racist & this shouldn't be a difficult concept to grasp.
Leiman talks about the talking points of conservatism & liberalism in regards to racism & what to do about them. The flaws in conservatism should be painfully obvious to most at this point but wait, there's more, he also lays waste to liberalism, demonstrating it's limitations & how they are ultimately pro-capitalist at the end of the day.
He talks about black nationalism, black capitalism, how both have connected with separatism, then black radicalism. I share the sentiment that black radicalism is necessary & key. He ultimately tries to excuse the racism of the white working class, placing the onus to fix this rift between the white working class & the black working class on black people. With or without a class consciousness, the black working class has ultimately been turned away more often than not by the white working class because of their racism. Anyone from the white working class that believes there needs to be solidarity between the two, needs to collect their people. They are the reason black people were willing to be scabs during their strikes or ultimately formed their own unions because white labor has historically been racist. They need to fix that, not black labor. Without that, black people will ultimately form their own groups, which are not without their limitations.
He does talk about class divisions within the black community. The black middle & upper classes, though not in the same position as their white counterparts, are significantly better off than the masses & they tend to act as a conservative force within any black movements in which they are included.
Until white labor fixes itself & these class divisions within the black community are acknowledged, any potential revolutionary force is just that, potential. Capitalism does inadvertently provide the tools & conditions necessary to unite the working class, it will not happen automatically. Racism had been a very efficient form of social control & that always has to be accounted for.
There is a final chapter that talks about gender but there wasn't much to it & likely needs a book on its own. He acknowledges that to get to class warfare, one must acknowledge & grapple with the issues of gender & race but feels they are subservient to class. I disagree as patriarchy & prejudice precede the existence of capitalism, they are institutionalized within the existence of the latter & in their being linked, I don't think they are subservient. Solely focusing on one, regardless of which, leads us nowhere. They are intertwined.
Overall, it's pretty good book to take you through the ins & outs of how racism has functioned & evolved in this capitalist society.
July 21, 2017
Having taken me a thoroughly long time to read, I finished The Political Economy of Racism the same day I went to the Macomb Juvenile Justice Detention Center to workshop some poetry with the students attending the facility’s subcontracted school. These were young men whom the system had failed at every level of their lives, regardless of the scope of their “crimes”. Some of these students were going to go straight to prison to serve 20 years, 30 years, or life and they were 14 -16 years old. There is not a society on earth that can deem itself a success while condemning children to lifetimes in prison. What can a book as dense and academic (not to mention a terrible “summer read”) as Melvin Leiman’s offer in the face of utter societal failure?
A lot.
Leiman’s is a challenging read, making this a hard book to recommend, but what he has to offer is critical. He works out two distinct lines of discourse; 1) a hard look at the economy of discrimination ranging from slavery to redlining (the book was written in the 70s so mass incarceration was really only starting to ramp up) and 2) an absolutely savage Marxist takedown of any school of thought that avoids branding capitalism as public enemy number one.
In his first line, Leiman makes it very clear his interest does not lie with the petty racism of individuals. While he feels any degree of racism is grotesque, it is obvious he places the emphasis on systems designed to hold African Americans down for any number of reasons. Slavery was, after all, an institution of value that was justified by evoking the perceived inferiority of black people. The argument is that racism maintains the underclass necessary for capitalism. It is a smart line to take, some Marxists receive criticism because they feel that racism would disappear if capitalism was toppled. Leiman makes no such guarantee, but he is very adamant that racism can never be abolished under capitalism as it is far too necessary; we need to justify exploitation by labeling those at the bottom as deserving of their place in society, the best way to do this is fostering the idea of race based inferiority. While this underlying premise seems obvious, Leiman’s scope is complicated (and arduous). He covers monopolistic economies where companies rely on disadvantaged communities - ones that may be ravaged by over policing and redlining - for cheap labor (think of Wal-Mart or McDonald's) and competitive economies where discrimination and racism help keep wages low across the labor market. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Every dissection is thorough and complete with hard numbers and analysis. Have I mentioned this book was dense?
The second half of the book examines radical critiques of racism, Orthodox critiques of racism, and hybrid positions such as Black Nationalism or Black Capitalism. To many, taking on the conservative school of thought is the easiest to swallow. Libertarian and conservative ideologies often pay lip service to a certainly palatable repulsion to discrimination and racism, but will not endorse government intervention to prevent it. The idea is that discrimination does not benefit the participants of a market system in the form of profits, stock prices, and/or publicity, in fact, it may harm them. Even where that is true, libertarians and conservatives fail to address the larger political economy that benefits more generally from the existence of an underclass perpetuated by systemic discrimination and racism. These were among some of the most buoyant and fun sections to read, Leiman’s take on liberalism and class-centric leftism are more complicated but no less crucial. The orthodox liberal ideology - say, of your Clinton variety - warrants criticism because it is a full endorsement of a class based system with a welfare state to mitigate the condition of the lowest classes. It attracts well-meaning people who don’t believe suffering should be so prolific but doesn’t truly offer them an answer for eliminating its necessity for America to maintain its decadence. Every examination of critical theory on racism that Leiman explores is vital for understanding the limitations of our system as a whole.
It is important to understand the persistence of racism in America, why the students I taught poetry in Juvenile Detention live in an entirely different world than the students I teach in the suburbs. This divide is entirely manufactured. Leiman’s solution to toppling capitalism is black and white labor unity, something he feels racism is also employed to stop. There isn’t a single element of racism that Leiman cannot prove the absolute utility of in his book. It’s worth stating again; the decline or abolition of capitalism will not guarantee the the decline or abolition of racism, but there will be no such thing under capitalism. Reading The Political Economy of Racism can help elevate the conversation against racism to much needed heights.
A lot.
Leiman’s is a challenging read, making this a hard book to recommend, but what he has to offer is critical. He works out two distinct lines of discourse; 1) a hard look at the economy of discrimination ranging from slavery to redlining (the book was written in the 70s so mass incarceration was really only starting to ramp up) and 2) an absolutely savage Marxist takedown of any school of thought that avoids branding capitalism as public enemy number one.
In his first line, Leiman makes it very clear his interest does not lie with the petty racism of individuals. While he feels any degree of racism is grotesque, it is obvious he places the emphasis on systems designed to hold African Americans down for any number of reasons. Slavery was, after all, an institution of value that was justified by evoking the perceived inferiority of black people. The argument is that racism maintains the underclass necessary for capitalism. It is a smart line to take, some Marxists receive criticism because they feel that racism would disappear if capitalism was toppled. Leiman makes no such guarantee, but he is very adamant that racism can never be abolished under capitalism as it is far too necessary; we need to justify exploitation by labeling those at the bottom as deserving of their place in society, the best way to do this is fostering the idea of race based inferiority. While this underlying premise seems obvious, Leiman’s scope is complicated (and arduous). He covers monopolistic economies where companies rely on disadvantaged communities - ones that may be ravaged by over policing and redlining - for cheap labor (think of Wal-Mart or McDonald's) and competitive economies where discrimination and racism help keep wages low across the labor market. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Every dissection is thorough and complete with hard numbers and analysis. Have I mentioned this book was dense?
The second half of the book examines radical critiques of racism, Orthodox critiques of racism, and hybrid positions such as Black Nationalism or Black Capitalism. To many, taking on the conservative school of thought is the easiest to swallow. Libertarian and conservative ideologies often pay lip service to a certainly palatable repulsion to discrimination and racism, but will not endorse government intervention to prevent it. The idea is that discrimination does not benefit the participants of a market system in the form of profits, stock prices, and/or publicity, in fact, it may harm them. Even where that is true, libertarians and conservatives fail to address the larger political economy that benefits more generally from the existence of an underclass perpetuated by systemic discrimination and racism. These were among some of the most buoyant and fun sections to read, Leiman’s take on liberalism and class-centric leftism are more complicated but no less crucial. The orthodox liberal ideology - say, of your Clinton variety - warrants criticism because it is a full endorsement of a class based system with a welfare state to mitigate the condition of the lowest classes. It attracts well-meaning people who don’t believe suffering should be so prolific but doesn’t truly offer them an answer for eliminating its necessity for America to maintain its decadence. Every examination of critical theory on racism that Leiman explores is vital for understanding the limitations of our system as a whole.
It is important to understand the persistence of racism in America, why the students I taught poetry in Juvenile Detention live in an entirely different world than the students I teach in the suburbs. This divide is entirely manufactured. Leiman’s solution to toppling capitalism is black and white labor unity, something he feels racism is also employed to stop. There isn’t a single element of racism that Leiman cannot prove the absolute utility of in his book. It’s worth stating again; the decline or abolition of capitalism will not guarantee the the decline or abolition of racism, but there will be no such thing under capitalism. Reading The Political Economy of Racism can help elevate the conversation against racism to much needed heights.
May 4, 2015
Hm... this one is a bit tough to review. First off, the greatest strength of the book is (IMO) its statistics about racial differences in income/wealth/employment in the US, and specifically how it frames these statistics. But then chapters 3 and 4 are honestly super arduous trudges through the economic literature on racism which will not be interesting or pertinent to most people who are not steeped in this world. Finally, the last 3 chapters are more like ideological rants than principled analyses (like chs. 1-4 are), so really I feel like the book should have been published as separate essays/monographs - perhaps chs. 1 and 2 as a theoretical and empirical study of racism, chs. 3 and 4 as like "A Critique of Liberal, Conservative, and Radical Economic Theories of Racism", and then chs. 5 through 7 as like political op-eds.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews