One of the things that inspired me to start this blog was how frequently I noticed that class is ignored (or, what I suspect happens more frequently, it is forgotten) when thinking about and discussing issues of oppression. This really struck me when I partook in what I consider my "initiation" into e-activism, in my moderating of this group protesting the students at Ryerson University who wanted to start a "White Culture Club".
If you go to school in Toronto (or even if you don't) you probably remember the controversy that started when some Ryerson students started a Facebook group called "I'm a White Minority at a Toronto University". The group was quickly shut down though the students continued to communicate in related Facebook groups, and their student council's stance against a physical "White Culture Club" further galvanized their resolve.
The issue? That students of other self-identified cultural and racial backgrounds could start groups, such as the "South Asian Students' Association" or the "Black Students Association". If these students could form groups based around cultural and/or racial labels, what would be harmful about white students doing the same thing? At the same time, many of these students (though not all) vehemently denied harboring racist sentiments and/or intentions.
(An aside: it was suggested countless times by myself and others that an alternate strategy would be to establish cultural groups such as "Irish Culture Club" or "Hungarian Culture Club" or whatever. These ideas were always rejected.)
Amongst those students who did not consider themselves racist (although I disagreed with their self-assessment, as their actions spoke louder than their words!) an overarching frustration which caused them to want to "celebrate white culture" was the feeling that "white" students were missing out on opportunities, particularly in the university environment, where there are scholarships, internships and so on which are frequently geared towards members of certain historically (and currently) marginalized groups. When this came up, I tried to point out that what they're actually talking about experiencing is classism, not "reverse racism" ("I can't qualify for this or that scholarship because I'm white! That's discrimination!"). I would bring up the fact that education has become a privilege for the wealthy, as opposed to a right that should be available to everyone regardless of economic status. Still, these students refused (or were unable) to see that they were experiencing marginalization based on class rather than race.
This got me thinking: Why is class such an under-considered form of oppression? We are all subject to "being classed", regardless of race. It is so universal yet it can be so invisible. Is it because "race" is so visible? Or is it because "race" and "racism" are so much a part of our everyday lives and personal narratives that we are trained to think along its lines more than those of classism?
What do you think?
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2 comments:
hmm...
I think class has become "invisible" primarily because after the 1970s, academics began to revoke any and all ties to Marxist thought or Marxist forms of analysis.
Some of this backlash against Marxism was due to the Red Scare, McCarthyism, and the politics of the Cold War, but some of it was also due to changing trends and fashions in the Ivory Tower. More and more individuals, like Foucault, began to shun Marxist forms of analyses and moved on to what they saw as more relevant forms of Othering (ie. race, sexuality, etc.)
But I think we can go as far back as Bacon's Rebellion in early colonial America to figure out another reason why "class" has become erased.
Bacon's Rebellion was a rebellion undertaken by white indentured servants (ie. contract labourers with basically no pay) and black slaves. After this rebellion, white planters made sure that the two captive labour forces would never see eye-to-eye on the basis of class, and essentially co-opted the indentured servants by giving them special benefits.
This had the effect of distancing and making more apparent the division between the white and black races, thus making "class" invisible.
Very interesting Jason. I did not know about Bacon's Rebellion. That sort of "othering by colouring" that you mention happened before the white planters sought to separate the white servants and the people of colour reminds me of what we learned about the Haitian constitution... when Haiti was attempting to become sovereign in the 19th century it defined anyone who was not of the upper classes as "black", including Germans and Poles who were there (mostly because of the Napoleonic wars) and united them in a common struggle regardless of skin colour. Very different from what we see in the 20th and 21st centuries in most places.
On another note, I also get tired of the trend towards ignoring or discounting Marxist analyses in scholarly thought. In my opinion Marxist feminism is one of the most important ways of looking at thiings through a "feminist lens", as the idea of unpaid women's work has been so incredibly much a part of almost every woman's life. It's high time we stopped equating Marxism with Stalinism!
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