The invention of the white race

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1. gee_totesAug 2022
   I am not OP (they seem to have been downvoted to oblivion) but a fascinating book I read recently on this topic was "The Invention of the White Race" by Theodore W. Allen.

   The book traces the historical development of the concept of whiteness from early Britain, where the Irish were considered non-white as a means to "other" and impoverish them, to pre-revolution Haiti, where people of mixed race could attain certificates of Whiteness that would grant them the same rights and privileges as non-mixed French people.

   Those are just two of the anecdotes I remember from the book. It's really worth a read if you're into the whole "race as a social construct" thing, since it digs into the mechanics of how that social construct was created.

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2. SavantIdiotMay 2021
   Chicken, meet egg. Why do you think corporations are terrified of unions? Especially trillion-dollar corporations? Because people have excepted this mythical work ethic. It is a time of self-policing, which is what your comment amounts to.

   UNIONS

   The nefarious angle of the work culture myth is that it perpetuates by our own hands, or rather, it is supposed to. Anyone who speaks out against it is a "unionist commie" or "lazy". It is self-reenforcing, where one group of workers is scared of losing their jobs so they attack the ones who want to unionize for better conditions.

   FEMINISM

   There's a similar analogy in feminism, where women who have internalized misogyny actively work to make sure other women don't try to upset the status quo in the name of liberation. It is why you sometimes read about women tearing each other apart because one might chose to not shave her legs or armpits, or wear makeup or heels to work: why should THEY be free of oppression when I'M NOT. Self-policing is very effective for the upper classes to retain control.

   RACISM

   It goes even further. Read "The Invention of the White Race". The idea of pitting poor white people against poor black people wasn't intentional: the hierarchy was constructed because wealthy land owners needed help policing their slaves, so they created the notion of white / black superiority which led to former white slaves earning their freedom becoming slave masters. (I'm simplifying, but that's the gist.)

   Self-policing is highly effective way for those in power to leverage fear and keep the oppressed classes at war with each other and not the people exploiting them. Your comment is spreading that fear.

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3. kungfooguruNov 2009
   This is a large issue to address... But think about why those things exist at all? Racism in the working class during the United States' beginning, whether its against the Irish in the Northeast or the Blacks in the South, was beneficial to whom? The bosses. The same is true for homophobia and sexism. When the working class comes together to overthrow the ruling class the ONLY way this is possible is if they throw out these ridiculous ideas, otherwise they have no chance.

   Check out works by W.E.B. Du Bois, Theodore Allen's 'The Invention of the White Race', Sherry Wolf's 'Sexuality and Socialism', Sharon Smith's 'Women and Socialism', and many more...

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