(ThyBlackMan.com) There is little room to debate that of all the sins British citizens settling the Jamestown colony committed, the most reverberating was the construction of Race.
Make no mistake about it, Race has proven to be politically expedient and economic fortuitous for white elites residing on the North American continent for the past 400 years. The concept of Race occurred while poor British citizens were seeking a refuge from a harsh caste system that guaranteed them a life of servile labor and economic exploitation. This moment in time laid the foundation for Du Bois’ ‘color line.’ If we can find any flaw in Du Bois’ prodigious career, it is that he should have extended his prediction into the new millennium.
One of the fundamental errors under-girding American racial discord is the reality that whenever discussions regarding the impact that Race has had on its citizenry are discussed, such conversations invariably focus on persons of color and exclude poor and working-class whites who have also been significantly impacted by the social construct. It is not a stretch to argue that issues flowing from Race have had as much of an impact on the economic exploitation of whites by an unsympathetic white elite populace as their darker brethren. Any serious examination of the tangible interests of elite and non-elite whites reveals that the alluded to interests are barely skin-deep. A cursory examination of the decisions that poor and working-class whites have made regarding their own interests reveals that they routinely make foolish decisions, largely based on a flawed understanding of Race in America, that makes them accessories to their own depraved economic status.
When this issue is examined closely, it is obvious that non-elite whites have been duped into believing that a powerless class of politically disorganized economic African-American vagabonds have more to do with their economic misery than a class of elites who have historically proven that it is an increase in their financial wherewithal not loyalty to poor and working-class whites that occupy every position on their list of priorities.
This illogical decision of non-elite whites to align themselves with elites that exploit them at every turn has precedence.
According to W.E.B. Du Bois, non-elite whites preoccupation with holding blacks down in every way imaginable pre-dates the creation of America’s favorite pastime, baseball, by over two-hundred years. W.E.B. Du Bois addresses this matter in his essay “Black Reconstruction in America, 1860 – 1880.”
Slavery bred in the poor white a dislike of Negro toil of all sorts. He never regarded himself as a laborer, or as part of any labor movement. If he had any ambition at all it was to become a planter and to own ‘niggers.’ To these Negroes he transferred all the dislike and hatred which he had for the whole slave system. The result was that the system was held stable and intact by the poor white.
Put simply, the socially constructed bias and unreasonable anger that poor whites felt in their own lives were heaped on a hapless enslaved population. Ironically, any relief from the stated white misery was found not in poor whites doomed attempts to curry favor with a non-responsive elite class, rather it was found in the creation of alliances with those sons and daughters of Africa that they harmed at every turn. If they were able to view this matter without the inherent racial bias that they had been taught was a core value of white culture, they would have recognized the ridiculousness of their decision-making that guaranteed their continuing poverty.
Although I understand how painful it must be for poor and working-class whites to realize that they have been and are to this very moment being duped by an exploitive white elite class with no concern for their well-being, particularly if it conflicts with the continuation of their vast economic privilege, it is time for non-elite whites to arrive at a few sobering realities. It is time that non-elite whites drop their preoccupation with Race and realize that for the past four-centuries their refusal to align with poor and working-class non-whites amounts to nothing other than a case of “cutting off their nose to spite their face.”
Considering the blinding effect that racial matters have on whites, I am turning to the words of one of their own, former President Lyndon Baines Johnson, who laid bare the psychological game that white elites have historically run on poor and working-class whites. According to LBJ,
If you can convince the lowest white man he’s better than the best colored man, he won’t notice you’re picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he’ll empty his pockets for you.
It is far too late in the game for poor and working-class whites to remain in their historical posture of playing the fool for white elites who have neither compassion nor concern for their well-being. It is time that all Americans begin to vote with their own interests in mind. I not only pray that this becomes the standard modus operandi for poor and working-class whites, but also that they can make informed decision without having their logic hijacked by an exploitive elite populace who have been able to somehow convince them that what is good for white elites is also good for even the poorest and most uneducated white man, woman, and child. I tell you, no greater lie has ever been told.
Staff Writer; Dr. James Thomas Jones III
Official website; http://www.ManhoodRaceCulture.com
One may also connect with this brother via Twitter; DrJamestJones.
