The Declining Significance of Race: Chapters 1 and 2
Crystal Mehdizadeh The concept of metaphysical dualism has split American society into binary categories, the most prominent of such being the black and white. Speaking strictly from an economic standpoint, William Julius Wilson explores the fundamentals of racial strife and class subordination as products of monetary incentives. He argues that because, “race relations have changed so much in recent years...the life chances of individual blacks have more to do with their economic class position than their day­to­day encounters with whites.” He believes that through programs like affirmative action, black people have been freed from constructs of race and now face discrimination based solely on class.In his delineation of race relations, Wilson states that different systems of production have imposed constraints on the way racial groups interact. So thus, when examining a production system and its lasting impacts, we must begin with its life­blood, labor. According to Wilson, in a nonmanufacturing, or “plantation economy”, the labor market is controlled by a small aristocracy. In the South, this aristocracy controlled all social and political power. Whites who did not own slaves did not yield much influence. The primary goal of the aristocracy was to maintain a cheap labor supply, and as life expectancy increased, slave labor proved to be the best investment. This was in part beneficial to the poor white man because he did not have to compete with black men for employment. Once slaves acquired more freedom, and eventual emancipation, tension surfaced along racial lines. This tension only escalated as farming and lower­skilled occupations became mechanized, thus leading blacks to migrate to cities and then to the North. In an attempt to secure their dominance, poor white people did everything in their power to prevent blacks from unionizing.
This did not help the white man because since blacks could not join unions, and thus did not request health benefits, shorter hours, or higher pay from employers, they were hired before unionized whites. Employers could use blacks as strikebreakers, which only furthered racial stratification in the labor market. This thus motivated whites to push for social policies like Jim
Crow laws, and other means of exploiting blacks and holding them in a position of inferiority.
Now, turning back to a preindustrial society, we may examine the relationship between slaves and their masters. Wilson describes such relationship as “paternalistic”, one in which both parties benefit. Following the ban on slave trade, it became increasingly important that natural reproduction replenish the slave population. Slaveholders had to pay special attention to a slave’s material conditions in order to ensure successful childbirth and growth. It is argued that these conditions, “compared favorably with those of free industrial workers during the first half of the nineteenth century.” Wilson ignores the psychological detriment endemic to personal servitude in his analysis. He believes that, “Southern paternalism stressed duties, responsibilities and reciprocal demands and expectations” and that the institution of slavery left enough “breathing room” for black people to prevent their personal degradation. In regard to the integrity of Wilson’s argument, I believe that citing the information he did, his argument can stand on some grounds. He examines the influence of employment practices in shaping race relations.But, his willingness to dismiss all responsibility of racism to economic

practices rather than social ones ignores the preconceived dispositions and hateful stereotypes perpetuated for hundreds of years.
In my opinion, Wilson’s argument does not hold up today. His analysis of race relations has now been rendered outdated by practices of the post­industrial society where education seems to be the primary factor in social mobility. I believe that in the pre industrial and industrial periods of development, the uniformly low economic class position of blacks reinforced the beliefs that black people were culturally and biologically inferior to white people.And that to this day, whites still use these beliefs to argue against the capabilities of black people. Wilson ignores this initial problem of racism, for example, why whites did not initially let black into unions despite the ultimately negative impact this had on their job security.
The concept of dualism, in which we have based our morality upon has bred much of this injustice, discrimination and abuse. Looking further we must realize that there can be no sole explanation for the mistreatment of blacks in America. Rather, it is a hazardous concoction of racism, power, and the resulting social and political choices based upon beliefs in the innate superiority of the white man. We must work towards blending the black and white to grey, or even better, seeing the world in color.