There is something going on this country. It has been flicking around the edges of my consciousness for a few years, I think. But it is starting coming in to focus for me.
I have tossed this notion around with some people whose intelligence and opinions I respect . It is slippery. I want to present, but I don’t want to get bogged down in old arguments. That’s part of the problem. We are used to looking at this issue and that issue till we can’t see the big picture. To be cliche, we can’t see the forest for the trees.
This problem that I see, I haven’t heard anyone address before. (Although I am sure they have, I simply just haven’t heard it. Therefore I need to define my own terms, since I haven’t heard them defined before.)
How to present this? We’ll start here, but I think this is a large concept and will have be addressed in more than one post. We’ll start with the notion of racism in America. How would you feel if I told you that there was no institutional racism in America? That except for a few bitter and under-educated individuals there is no racism? Hear me out. If you have a list of example of racism, hold on to them for a second. Let’s look at this from another angle. I recently heard a quote that said something about Bush hating black people, in describing his response (or lack thereof) to the disaster in New Orleans. As a matter of fact, it wouldn’t be too hard to put together a case that said that the Bush administration had presented policies that have harmed African-Americans. But there would be a gaping hole in that argument.
Bush made Colin Powell the first black Secretary of State, then he made Condi Rice the first black woman Secretary of State. It is widely reported that Dr. Rice was one of Bush’s closest advisors during his first term. If Bush has it in for the African American community, why has held these two individuals in such high regard? Or more simply put, if we call Bush a racist he will not only deny it, but will go on to tell us about his friends that are black.
We see this kind of discrepancy all over the place. How to explain it? Perhaps were are looking at the problem all wrong. Maybe it’s not about race, not about skin color. What if we assert that it is about class? If we say that the Bush administration has consistently implemented policies that are harmful to the lower classes in this country, does this ring truer? It’s getting closer.
How about if we don’t define our classes by economic terms? If you took Macroeconomics you have heard about the classes in America. Lower, Middle and the Upper. Forget about them, for the purposes of this discussion, they are useless. There are factory workers, Tool and Dye makers who make more money than most teachers. Are they in the same class? I wouldn’t say so.
Let’s define the classes in the United States as follows. There are three classes. I’ll name them like this, although I acknowledge the names aren’t perfectly representative of their members; the Elite Middle Class, the Urban Poor and the Rural Working Class.
The Elite Middle Class is the class who run this country. It is composed of home owning, college educated, white-collar workers. They are held together by a common set of core values. Values that could described as White Anglo-Saxon Protestant values. But don’t be confused, this class is not about being white, Anglo-Saxon or Protestant. It’s about living with values and mores that the WASPs have traditionally held. What are the mores of the Elite Middle Class? I could probably write a book to answer that question, but I won’t because I think that all of us understand them. They include the nuclear family, the notion of education as a means to better oneself, a work ethic that dictates that one must work himself to the bone to get a head (the so-called American Dream,) a whole bunch of implicitly understood rules of behavior that are referred to as manners, and countless others. If you are having trouble picturing these mores, picture the Huxtables from the Cosby Show. It doesn’t matter if you’re Black, Hispanic-Catholic, or a Russian Jew, as long as you act correctly. Nearly all of our political and corporate leaders come from this group. Liberal Democrats and Conservative Christian Republicans both come from this group. They agree or more than they think, it just some of the details that they differ on.
The Urban Poor are largely African American, but not exclusively. They are not a cohesive class like the Elite Middle class. What they have in common is what they do not have. They are poor, they do not own homes, they are uneducated, and they do not subscribe the mores of the Elite Middle Class. Paternity is practically undefined in this class. This is class that has evolved from centuries of communal living. They have a very different notions about privacy and personal space.
The Rural Working Class are not necessary rural nor do they necessarily work. Once again this group is defined by a certain set of values and mores. The Rural Working Class holds many values in common with the Elite Middle Class but they lack much of what the Middle class has. Home ownership is not as common. Many of them own trailers or other properties that do not have the same investment potential as true home ownership, although they likely believe that it is the same. Many of them hold jobs that do not require any formal education, custodial positions, manufacturing jobs. Some of them will develop skills, but only skills that they can employ in their jobs, auto mechanics and tool and dye makers for example. They view money as something to be dealt with immediately and most of them don’t trust banks for even the simplest of investments, Savings Accounts. They are a group that is largely ignorant and gets much of its information on the rest of the world from what they are told at work, at church, the bar. They are the NASCAR nation and the Bible Belt. They are the voters who consistently put Republicans in office.
Interesting observations, you may be thinking, but so what?
Back to my original question, about Racism. What if what we are seeing isn’t racism. What if it is classism. I know it’s not a real word. But it will have to do. What if I assert that the Bush administration has consistently pursued policies that are harmful to the Urban Poor. What if I further more assert that while the Administration’s policies do not benefit the Rural Working Class much they are presented in such a way that the Rural Working Class believes that they have benefited, tax cuts for example. Do these assertion ring more true than the assertion that the Bush Administration is racist? I think that they do. It is no longer a paradox that Bush has placed African Americans high in his cabinet. It doesn’t matter that they are African American, because regardless of how they got there, both Condaleeza Rice and Colin Powell are members of the Elite Middle Class.
So what does all this have to do with anything? It had to do with this. For the last few decades, certain members of the Elite Middle Class have been acting to elevate and isolate the Elite Middle Class, but keeping the Urban Poor impoverished, ignorant and at war with each other, while at the manipulating the fears and ignorance of the Rural Working Class to achieve their aims.
Why should I care? I’m a member of the Elite Middle Class (although there are many who are more elite than I am.) I benefit from these policies. Why should I rock the boat? For two reasons: First I do not want to be the beneficiary of another’s suffering. I don’t want to see people get swept aside ignored just because there are different. Second, it won’t work long term. History shows that time and again, when the gulf between haves and the have-nots gets too large the have-nots will topple the haves. Just ask Tsar Nicholas II or Louis XVI.
This is problem that needs to be addressed and the time is now. The first step will be to remove those from power who support policies of Classism. As I said a thousand or so words ago, this is a big concept and will take more than one post to fully realize it. So I leave you with these thoughts for now, with the promise that we will continue this conversation.
