Since the 1970’s the rise in inequality has been a major issue in the United States and across the world. While many would believe slavery and racism was abolished in 1865, unfortunately many African Americans still face discrimination today. Many theorists such as John Schmitt, who has written about economic inequality and unemployment, and Karl Marx , focusing a lot of his work on capitalism and economic theories, both highlight inequality amongst classes, but both theorists fail to point out the issue of the inequality within racial groups.
Ta-Nehisi Coates dives deeper into these concepts in The Case for Reparations; an intense piece highlighting how even with the Jim Crows Laws and the endless laws that have been enacted over the years, many things have been put in place to still hold back these groups of people. Both Marx and Schmitt can help us understand the points of the Coates’ reading, and how the idea of class-consciousness, the awareness of common interests within the working class, and hegemony, the leading class assumes power and leadership over other classes, is in response to the systemic need for awareness of racial inequality and the need to fix it.
While both Karl Marx and John Schmitt recognize inequality in each of their pieces of work, both highlight it in different contexts. In Marx’s writing, Introduction to Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844, he focuses on these two social classes that society divides themselves into. These being, the bourgeoisie, those who have most of the wealth in society, a capitalist class, and the proletariat, this is the working class in society. In Marx’s work he focuses a lot of his ideas on the transition to a political economy, this is about the means of production and their relationship with the government and law. From this reading we can understand how Marx feels about capitalism as a whole and how it affects the economy and people in it, stating:
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The worker becomes all the poorer, the more wealth he produces, the more his production increase in power and range. The worker becomes an ever cheaper commodity the more commodities he creates. With the increasing value of the world of things proceeds in direct proportion of the devaluation of the world of men. Labor produces not only commodities; it produces itself and the worker as a commodity- and does so in the proportion in which it produces commodities generally (Marx, 1932, pg 41).
Marx is explaining how the mode of production is ultimately hurting people. This gives us a better understanding of his idea of alienation. Mainly stating that under capitalism every object is now a commodity and that workers are becoming “alienated” from his labor produce; what the worker is producing via his labor is NOT his. This is taking away his identity. As well as believing in the idea that capitalism is hurting us. He centers a lot of this writing on the idea of money and the fact that money is the ultimate goal.
When understanding the unemployment rate of black college graduates and inequality in that aspect we were able to relate that back to Marx’s idea of The Moneyless and to the fact that even if you have the knowledge and smarts but are not educated enough you therefore will not be given equal opportunities, just as blacks were not given equal opportunity in the work industry. This gives us a basis of inequality and how hegemony is shown in which the bourgeoisies have more dominance over the proletariat group.
While Marx analyzes the general idea inequality in this time period with the two classes in society and how capitalism affects them, John Schmitt’s writing, Inequality as Policy, highlights his theory of inequality in that there are certain policies that directly align with the components of inequality. Stating, “My argument is that the high and rising inequality in the United States is the direct result of a set of policies designed first and foremost to increase inequality” (Schmitt, 2009, pg. 1). This helps us understand that it is not an accident that inequality was increased.
In the Picketty and Saez graph that we took a look at, we can understand that while inequality has always been an issue, before the year of 1979 inequality in some sense flat lined and was at a stand still and then following the year of 1979 inequality began to sky rocket, leading us to where we are today. Hegemony is a factor in this section, in which these policies that have been implemented were created by the elites in society to the maintain the inequality between the elites and working class; that way the elites will still have power over the working/poor class.
As we take a look at Marx and Schmitt’s strong views on inequality and similarities and differences the two theorists share, this brings us into the piece written by Ta-Nehisi Coates, The Case for Reparations. This reading highlights extensive examples of class conflict and discrimination against the African American community. Coates makes this article based on the inequality of race in society unlike what Marx and Schmitt focused on. Both theorists would agree with Coates in the sense of class-consciousness, and to not only realize the social differences but being aware of shared interests and the similarities between the classes.
Just like Schmitt focuses on in his theory, Coates make it a point to have us fully understand that rich, white people implemented these policies that have been in the United States. For example, “HR-40 has never-under either democrats or republicans- made it to the House floor suggests our concerns are rooted not in the impracticality of reparations but in something more existential” (Coates, 2014, pg. 22). This is pointing out the fact that HR 40, the bill that calls for the study of slavery and its continued effects, has continuously been shut down by white, males in power. This problem of institutional racism continues because for the soul reason that nobody wants to bring it to light. This hegemonic idea is blatantly shown via this controversial issue.
Schmitt would agree with Coates on that idea that history is the stem of inequality. For example some of the earliest forms of policies, Jim Crow Laws, and slavery laws. From the start of slavery and the Jim Crow laws, African Americans from there on out were ultimately denied their idea of the American dream of self-prosperity. These ideas of being less than equal and lower than every other race and ethnicity has been embedded in African Americans and still continues now;
Black families, regardless of income, are significantly less wealthy than white families. The Pew Research Center estimates that white households are worth roughly 20 times as much as black households, and that whereas only 15 percent of whites have zero or negative wealth, more than a third of blacks do. Effectively, the black family in America is working without a safety net (Coates, 2014, pg. 15). This puts black families in the mindset that they are worthless and there is a great deal of factors that are responsible for the state that African Americans are in right now.
As for Marx, he would agree with Coates and the idea that “money is power”. In Marx’s writing it states, “It is the common whore, the common pimp of people and nations” (Marx, 1932, pg. 48). This point that money is a pimp is what Marx believed, in that with money you have the power and the ability to do whatever you want. Money is seen as the ultimate goal and with that you have the ability to buy or exchange things that allow you to have dominance or power in a certain society and over certain groups. We see this idea that “money is power” in Coates’ work. “Ross had bought his house for $27,500. The seller not the pervious homeowner but a new kind of middleman, had bought it for only $12,000 six months before selling it to Ross” (Coates, 2009, pg. 8).
In this instance for Clyde Ross and many other African Americans, people were either refused loans or selling houses double to black people than white; and due to the fact that many couldn’t afford these high costs, this ultimately allowed the state to control who lives where; leading to redlining. People in these redlining areas were often denied loans for mortgages because they lived in areas that were deemed as financially unstable and poor. In this case the state had the power to control where people lived in these areas, in this case,, like many others instances, hegemony comes into play; the state and the people who were enforcing these policies exerted dominance and power over African Americans and other oppressed groups of people.
There is ultimately no way to be able to fix the damage that has been done and that is still being done to African Americans all over. But the start is to be aware of class-consciousness and how hegemony plays a powerful role in inequality. We cannot continuously ignore our mistakes but instead act on them. Marx, Schmitt, and Coates all do a strong job at highlighting Americas faults and pointing out that this has been an ongoing issue from the start. Until we acknowledge our mistakes and the case for reparation, we will until then remain separated and not be whole.
