Ain't no Difference

I had no time to write last night. I worked a full day and then had some extracurriculars to tend to after work involving securing transport for the upcoming trip Sunday.

I did manage, in between leaving work and going to bed, to get roped into a debate regarding class and race - on Instagram of all places. A bright chap uttered the phrase "ummm, class is intrinsically correlated with race," and I had to chime in. Intrinsically huh? Even his word placement is backwards. There is a correlation between race and class, certainly, but an intrinsic relation? Surely he is confused I thought, and I expected he would see his folly when I tried to clarify this for him. I was wrong. Realizing he will likely not grasp my message, I may just give up the argument: only the foolish argue with fools.

But here I can expound upon my idea, which I don't even really consider to be an idea, but more of a generally understood and agreed upon concept. Race is related to class. Unsurprisingly. Given when one group assumes power and amasses wealth, it is dispersed and shared amongst that group. Often, due to a human predisposition to pursue homogeny and eschew difference, they try to keep the power in the hands of their tribe at the expense of those outside it. There isn't anything unique to race that causes this, race just happens to be an easily observable and essentially unchangeable site of difference to be exploited when humans need a manufactured and arbitrary division. Then, race is a factor of class, not the determiner. Human fear, sick with greed, is the mother of racism.

Maybe my online adversary grew up in a rigid race-based caste system, and has felt the weight of oppression firsthand. Who am I then to speak of the struggle of such a person? The sadness and helplessness at the realization that his race wasn't something he chose or could change, and the subsequent anger and frustration at the failure of others to see he was just like them, regardless of the color of his skin.

(He's white and hipstery)