Blog 20 - What Is There In Being White?
- A System Analyst
- Apr 9
- 2 min read
Updated: Apr 22
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Not sure this qualifies as a blog any more – more ‘occasional pieces linking current issues to the work ‘Us, Politics, The System And Class’'.
We are rightly worried about people who base their politics on being white, about the racism that comes from it, and about how it gives us Trump and the threat of such extreme conservatism all over.
Thankfully, many people confront the racism. But turn it round and weigh up the white identity it is based on. We give the idea too much respect. Everyone's experience of other people's everyday behaviour shows it doesn’t stand up.
Like, white people who say racist things know what you mean when you ask if they get any problems with fellow-whites. Of course they do. Ask ‘What comes from someone being white that makes them of any use to you?’ So they can agree ‘There’s good and bad in all’ and that you can’t be positive about white people just from their being white.
And say that this goes for people of colour too. Nobody claims they are all great, just because of colour. Some can be conservatives, the worst of all people (taking account of numbers and power). In the UK recently, leading Conservative politicians have been almost majority of Asian origin or Black. Then there’s Kanye West. And Judge Clarence Thomas on the US Supreme Court. And more. We just say 'Judge people of colour, and all people, by their actions, not their colour'.
And ask about politics based on white identity ‘Apart from being hostile to people of colour, what policies have they got?’ If they got an all-white society, how would they have it run? What would they do about people’s problems and needs in getting good jobs, housing, health services, and the rest?'
And the key tool in tackling the idea of white identity, and everything else, is to raise the existence of the business class. First, identify their role – how, by owning and organising most production and services, they run the country. Then get used to naming them.
Then, when people talk of ‘the white working class’, ask ‘What about the (mainly) white business class? Whose most basic belief is that their self-interest and wealth overwhelms the needs of fellow-whites? In the work relationship and in politics, where they resist paying taxes towards the public services their less well-off fellow-whites need? Who are represented by the conservative movement, including Trump, the Republicans, Farage and Reform?
Say to ‘white workers’ taken in by conservatives - ‘The people who really defend you are other white workers, progressive people and parties, who organise together, and with workers of colour, against the business class and conservative parties. It’s hard enough to do as it is. If some, instead, side with the people most responsible for their own and other workers' problems, they let themselves down, and undermine the whole working class's ability to stand up to them.
These arguments are developed more thoroughly in the small piece
‘Nationalism and Classism’ at
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