 | | Angela Davis speaking at a rally in the 1970s.Bettmann Archive/Getty Images |
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The protests against police brutality have inspired many Americans, especially white ones, to learn more about racism and the black American experience. They’re reading books on “white privilege” and learning about concepts like “white fragility.” They’re asking “how to be an ally” and looking for ways to give or participate or just to help. |
None of this is wrong, exactly, and some of it is good. But there is a danger. So much of this discourse is focused on individual belief and action that it can obscure the most important truth about racism, which is that it is structural and material. In other words, the problem of racism has much more to do with labor exploitation, wealth inequality and exposure to premature death than it does privilege or personal prejudice. Likewise, the reason to study the history of American racism is its key relationship to fundamental questions of political economy. Close readers of mine will notice that I refer frequently to W.E.B. Du Bois, and he’s useful here as well. |
| The true significance of slavery in the United States to the whole social development of America lay in the ultimate relation of slaves to democracy. What were to be the limits of democratic control in the United States? If all labor, black as well as white, became free — were given schools and the right to vote — what control could or should be set to the power and action of these laborers? Was the rule of the mass of Americans to be unlimited, and the right to rule extended to all men regardless of race and color, or if not, what power of dictatorship and control; and how would property and privilege be protected? |
He’s writing about Emancipation and Reconstruction, but I think this applies just as much to racism and white supremacy. Substitute “racism” for “slavery” and “blacks” for “slaves” in the first sentence and I think you have a paragraph that almost 90 years after it was written, gets to the heart of the matter. |
All of this is to offer a reading list. A few books that I have found incredibly useful to understanding what racism is and how it operates. |
First, “Racecraft: The Soul of Inequality in American Life” (2014) by Karen and Barbara Fields. The authors seek to dispel the notion that “race” exists in any concrete way, arguing instead that racism is what’s real and what gives life to the idea of “race.” Here’s an excerpt: |
| Racism is not an emotion or state of mind, such as intolerance, bigotry, hatred, or malevolence. If it were that, it would easily be overwhelmed; most people mean well, most of the time, and in any case are usually busy pursuing other purposes. Racism is first and foremost a social practice, which means that it is an action and a rationale for action, or both at once. Racism always takes for granted the objective reality of race, as just defined, so it is important to register their distinctness. The shorthand transforms racism, something an aggressor does, into race, something the target is, in a sleight of hand that is easy to miss. |
Second, “The Racial Contract” (1997) by Charles W. Mills. Mills, a philosopher, uses Western social contract theory to try to understand racism as a social system and as a force that shapes the moral theory and moral psychology of mainstream, “white” society. |
| [T]he Racial Contract establishes a racial polity, a racial state, and a racial juridical system, where the status of whites and nonwhites is clearly demarcated, whether by law or custom. And the purpose of this state, by contrast with the neutral state of classic contractarianism, is, inter alia, specifically to maintain and reproduce this racial order, securing the privileges and advantages of the full white citizens and maintaining the subordination of nonwhites. |
Third, “Women, Race & Class” (1981) by Angela Davis. In this volume of essays, Davis shows the ways in which racism has hampered the struggle for women’s liberation, and in the process provides a detailed examination of how racism, sexism and capitalism operate as an interlocking system that perpetuates disadvantage. |
| As females, slave women were inherently vulnerable to all forms of sexual coercion. If the most violent punishments of men consisted in floggings and mutilations, women were flogged and mutilated, as well as raped. Rape, in fact, was an uncamouflaged expression of the slaveholder’s economic mastery and the overseer’s control over Black women as workers. The special abuses inflicted on women thus facilitated the ruthless economic exploitation of their labor. |
And last, since I talk about him all the time, I want to recommend “Darkwater: Voices From Within the Veil” (1920) by Du Bois. Written nearly 20 years after “The Souls of Black Folk,” this is the first of his autobiographical works, in which he tells the story of his life with verse, poetry and prose, while offering trenchant analyses of domestic and world events, from the East St. Louis massacres of 1917 to colonialism and the First World War. |
| There’s the rub, — it pays. Rubber, ivory, and palm-oil; tea, coffee, and cocoa; bananas, oranges, and other fruit; cotton, gold, and copper — they, and a hundred other things which dark and sweating bodies hand up to the white world from pits of slime, pay and pay well, but of all that the world gets the black world gets only the pittance that the white world throws it disdainfully. |
| Small wonder, then, that in the practical world of things-that-be there is jealousy and strife for the possession of the labor of dark millions, for the right to bleed and exploit the colonies of the world where this golden stream may be had, not always for the asking, but surely for the whipping and shooting. It was this competition for the labor of yellow, brown, and black folks that was the cause of the World War. Other causes have been glibly given and other contributing causes there doubtless were, but they were subsidiary and subordinate to this vast quest of the dark world’s wealth and toil. |
These books will not answer all of your questions or tell you everything you need to know, but I think they provide a useful introduction to how to think about racism as a structural force and how it relates to this society as a whole. |
Since Juneteenth is on the verge of becoming a bona fide national holiday, I thought I would write about its significance, and specifically, how we should think about Emancipation. |
| Emancipation wasn’t a gift bestowed on the slaves; it was something they took for themselves, the culmination of their long struggle for freedom, which began as soon as chattel slavery was established in the 17th century, and gained even greater steam with the Revolution and the birth of a country committed, at least rhetorically, to freedom and equality. In fighting that struggle, black Americans would open up new vistas of democratic possibility for the entire country. |
Paul Elie on Flannery O’Connor in The New Yorker. |
If you’re enjoying what you’re reading, please consider recommending it to friends. They can sign up here. If you want to share your thoughts on an item in this week’s newsletter or on the newsletter in general, please email me at jamelle-newsletter@nytimes.com. |
 | | A 2014 protest against police brutality in Ferguson, Mo.Jamelle Bouie |
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I took this photo almost six years ago during the protests in Ferguson, Mo. When I look back at the photos I took in the two weeks I was there, this is the only one that I think is worth coming back to. |
Now Eating: Basil Ice Cream |
We have a pretty substantial vegetable and herb garden, which includes more basil than we can actually use for pizzas, pastas or salads. So instead, I used a bunch for this ice cream, which tastes exactly as basil smells. I served it as is, but you could also top with a drizzle of fruity olive oil. Recipe from The New York Times Cooking section. |
- 1 cup mint or basil leaves, cleaned and dried
- ⅔ cup sugar
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 1 cup whole milk
- ⅛ teaspoon fine sea salt
- 6 large egg yolks
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In a food processor, pulse together mint or basil leaves and sugar until pulverized and bright green. |
In a small pot, simmer heavy cream, milk, herb sugar and salt until sugar completely dissolved, about 5 minutes. Remove pot from heat. In a separate bowl, whisk yolks. Whisking constantly, slowly add about a third of the hot cream to the yolks, then whisk the yolk mixture back into the pot with the cream. |
Return pot to medium-low heat and gently cook until mixture is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon (about 170 degrees on an instant-read thermometer). Remove from heat and allow custard to steep for 30 minutes. |
Strain through a fine-mesh sieve into a bowl. Cool mixture to room temperature. Cover and chill at least 4 hours or overnight. |
Churn in an ice cream machine according to manufacturer’s instructions. Serve directly from the machine for soft serve, or store in freezer until needed. |
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