Notes on An Economic Theory of Racism

Léon cites Seneca, Juvenal, and Quintilius, who call the Jews a 'criminal race' or a 'curse'. See Abraham Léon, Judenfrage und Kapitalismus (Munich, 1971), p. 4. Léon's study was originally written in French and appeared under the title La conception matérialiste de la question juive in Paris in 1968. See also Madeleine Rebérioux, 'Préhistoire et histoire du Racisme', in Patrice de Comarmond and Claude Duchet, Racisme et Société (Paris, 1969), pp. 105 f. and Oliver Cromwell Cox, Caste, Class, and Race (New York, 1959), pp. 322f. (originally published by Doubleday in 1948).

Kenneth L. Little also arrives at this conclusion in his essay 'Race and Society': 'The conclusion of this essay, then, is that the phenomenon of race relations is part of a special era in human history, that it arose out of the earlier European attempt to exploit overseas territories, and that it later became an integral part of colonialism, as an economic and imperial policy.' In Race and Science (New York, 1961), p. 102.

See below in the text.

See e.g. Michael Banton, 'The Concept of Racism' in Sami Zubaida, Race and Racialism (New York, 1970), pp. 20-22; also the essay of Harold Wolpe, 'Industrialism and Race in South Africa, ibid., pp. 151f., as well as the article of William K. Tabb, 'Capitalism, Colonialism, and Racism', in The Review of Radical Political Economics (Vol. 3, No. 3, Summer, 1971), pp. 50 f. See further John C. Leggett, Class, Race and Labor (New York, 1971), pp. 4-6, also Bradley R. Schiller, 'Class discrimination versus racial discrimination', in Review of Economics and Statistics, (Vol. 53, No. 3, 1971), pp. 263 f.

Banton, op. cit., p. 21.

Cited by Banton, op. cit. p. 17. Also Ruth Benedict, Die Rassenfrage (Bergen II, 1947), p. 14.

Alex La Guma , (ed.), Apartheid ( Berlin, 1971), p. 12.

In the literature, definitions of racism coincide with those of prejudice. See, e.g., Banton, op. cit., p. 21. Prejudice is often understood as the genus and racism as the species. The above distinction is not correct as it confuses cause and effect. If prejudice is the genus, then racial prejudice is the species; racism is the mental and institutional system brought about by racial prejudice. As is shown below, prejudice cannot be viewed as an independent mental attitude, but as one caused by economic considerations. Also Arnold Rose has pointed out that 'the most obvious cause of prejudice is that it creates advantages and material benefits for those who are prejudiced'. 'The roots of Prejudice', in Race and Science, op. cit., p. 394.

See also Marios Nikolinakos , 'Economic foundations of discrimination in the Federal Republik of Germany', in Hans van Houte and Willy Melgert , (eds.), Foreigners in our Community (Amsterdam , 1972), p. 79f.

See in detail Nikolinakos, op, cit., pp. 78 f. Foreign workers are treated as a case of racism also by Comarmond, Duchet and Nacht; see Marc Nacht, 'Racisme et immigration', in Comarmond and Duchet, Racisme et Société ..., pp. 13, 83 f.

See a general discussion in Little, op. cit., pp. 64 f.

For this last see Wolpe, op. cit., pp. 170 f., and Tabb, op. cit., pp. 95 f.

See Léon, op, cit., pp. 94-96.

I draw my information about East Africa from a report that appeared in the review Der Spiegel (No. 34, 14 August 1972), p. 70. A similar case is to be found in Malaysia, the population of which consists of Malays (50.4 per cent), Chinese (36.4 per cent) and Indians and Pakistanis (11 per cent). As J.-P. Arlès puts it, 'the dominance of political life by the Malays is offset by the economic prominence of the Chinese and to a lesser extent of the Indians'. The disorders of 1969 were caused by 'prejudices based on ethnic origin' which were 'exacerbated by the disparities and structural changes caused by economic growth and development.' 'Ethnic and Socio-Economic Patterns in Malaysia', in International Labour Review (Vol. 104, 1971), p. 527 f.

See, about the dominant racial groups in Asia: W. Thomson and R. Adloff, Minority Problems in Southeast Asia (Stanford, 1955), pp. 3-58, 59-165; M. Conant' 'Southeast Asia', in C. T. Thomson and E. C. Hughes, Race, Individual and Collective Behavior (New York, 1958), pp. 144-9; J. M. van der Kroef, The Economic Role of the Arabs in Indonesia, ibid., pp. 218-21. The Chinese, the Indians, and the Eurasians had a very strong position in Indonesian trade; the Arabs in Indonesia were involved in foreign trade and in the financial sector; the Chinese had in Thailand a monopoly on the retail and rice trade; in Cambodia, before independence, they controlled the transport system as well as the credit and bank sectors. See also the example given in the previous footnote.

See Akin L. Mabogunje , 'Nigeria, physical and social geography' , in Africa South of the Sahara 1971 ( London , 1971), pp. 556 f.; Rolf Hanisch , Bürgerkrieg in Afrika? ( Berlin, 1970 ), pp. 20-8, 38-48; and P. Antonello , B. Decke , F.J.T. Lee , H. Schmelz , A. Chima and O.B. Egbuna , Nigeria gegen Biafra; (Berlin, 1969), pp. 69 f. The case of Nigeria is a very good example, as the last authors clearly show, of how tribalism is be ingused by neo-colonialism as an instrument of perpetuating the dependence relationship.

Léon, op. cit., p. 6.

Cox, op. cit.

Scientific research has shaken the belief that racial differences are of a biological nature. It has been proven that differences, earlier attributed to racial factors, actually result from social and economic determinants and are therefore subject to change. See E. K. Francis, 'Minderheitenforschung in Amerika', in Kölner Zeitschrift fiir Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie (Vol. 9, 1957), pp. 517-48, and (Vol. 10, 1958), pp. 116-33; C. Wagley and M. Harris, Minorities in the New World (New York, 1958), particularly pp. 237 f.; J. Biesanz, 'Cultural and Economic Factors in Panamian Race Relations', in American Sociological Review (Vol. 14, 1949), pp. 772-9; M. M. Tumin, Caste in a Peasant Society (New Jersey, 1952), pp. 59 f.

About integration see Nikolinakos, op. cit., pp. 78-80.

Compare on this point the analysis of Cox on a similar basis, op, cit., pp. 353 f.

See Gunnar Myrdal , An American Dilemma, the Negro Problem and Modern Democracy (New York, 1962 ), pp. 700-705; and Arnaud Durban et al., 'Le problème noir aux Etats-Unis', in Comannond and Duchet, Racisme et société , pp. 24-6.

Léon, op. cit., p. 86 f.

" See Hanisch, op. cit., pp. 42-8; Antonello, Decke et al., op. cit., pp. 63-8; H. Hugh and Mabel M. Smythe, 'Das Entstehen der neuen afrikanischen Oberschicht in Nigeria', in Afrika Heute (1960), pp. 44 f.; E. R. Yeld, 'Islam and Social Stratification in Northern Nigeria', in British Journal of Sociology (Vol. 11, June 1960), pp. 112-28. Compare also Peter Marris, 'The Social Barriers to African Entrepreneurship', in Journal of Development Studies (Vol. 5, No. 1, October 1968), pp. 29-43.

Another example is Brazil where the 'majority of the "people of colour" remain in the lower class', while 'the upper class is composed almost exclusively of European whites or people "in whom the traces of Indian or Negro blood are infinitesimal".' See 'From Caste to Class in North Brazil', in Charles Wagley, (ed.), Race and Class in Rural Brazil (New York, 1972), p. 145.

For the sake of argument I am considering the case where the minority is numerically only a fraction of the national labour force. The argument is, however, valid also when we have the inverse relationship as is the case in South Africa. In general, capitalists in their attempt to squeeze v in face of the resistance of the trade unions which do not allow a squeeze of va, concentrate their pressure on vb, whose resistance is—for the reasons already mentioned—weak.

See on discrimination practices Myrdal, op. cit., pp. 380 f.; Nikolinakos, op. cit., pp. 80 f.; Alan B. Batchelder, The Economics of Poverty (New York, 1966), pp. 106 f.; W. W. Daniel, Racial Discrimination in England (London, 1969), particularly pp. 209 f.

Myrdal confirms the absence of solidarity on the part of white labour with the Negroes in the U.S.A. See Myrdal, op. cit., pp. 67 f. Compare also the findings of Leggett, op. cit., pp. 96 f. Also in Germany it was confirmed by a field survey in Cologne that native workers look at foreign workers as competitors. See Karl Bingemer, Edeltraud Meistermann-Seeger and Edgar Neubert, Leben als Gastarbeiter (Cologne, 1970), pp. 36 f. For England see Peter L. Wright, The Coloured Worker in British Industry (London, 1968), pp. 179 f., as well as Sheila Allen, 'Immigrants or Workers', in Zubaida, op. cit., pp. 111 f.; on Switzerland, Rudolf Braun, Sozio-kulturelle Probleme der Eingliederung italienischer Arbeitskräfte in der Schweiz (Zurich, 1970), p. 406 f. About trade union policies, UNO, Infringements of Trade Union Rights in Southern Africa (New York, 1970); Alex Hepple, South Africa: Workers under Apartheid (London, 1969); Daniel, op. cit., pp. 132 f.; Myrdal, op. cit., pp. 401-403; Leggett, op. cit., pp. 82 f.; Nikolinakos, op. cit., pp. 91 f.

It must be emphasized that the condition va/rn > vb/rb persists even in cases where social legislation recognizes the status of the minority and that of the national labour force as equal, as the minority workers get the lower paid jobs, have a lower productivity due to their lack of training and education, and have, furthermore, low price elasticities of labour supply. See on this topic Nikolinakos, op. cit., pp. 87-9; also by the same author, Politische Ökonomie der Gastarbeiterfrage, Migration und Kapitalismus (Hamburg, 1973), pp. 95 f.; as well as D. Collard, 'Immigration and Discrimination: some economic aspects', in Wilson, et al., (eds.), Economic Issues in Immigration (London, 1970), pp. 82 f. Besides, there is evidence that foreign workers are being discriminated against even in cases where their qualifications equal those of the indigenous workers. In France for example 50 per cent of the skilled Algerians receive the wage of an unskilled worker. See Der Spiegel (No. 24, 7 June 1971), p. 92. About Germany see Ursula Mehrländer, Beschäftigung ausländischer Arbeitnehmer in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland unter spezieller Berücksichtigung von Nordrhein-Westfalen (Cologne, 1969), pp. 99 f., 107 f. About the income differences between Negroes and whites in the U.S.A. see, among many relevant studies, James Gwartney, 'Discrimination and Income Differentials', in The American Economic Review (Vol. 60, No. 3, June 1970), pp. 396 f.; and Alan Batchelder, 'Poverty: the special case of the Negro', in Burton A. Weisbrod, (ed.), The Economics of Poverty, An American Paradox (New Jersey, 1965), pp. 100-104.

See reference 12.

See on this point Marios Nikolinakos, 'Zur Frage der Auswanderungseffekte in den Emigrationslandern', in Das Argument (No. 68, Decembcr 1971), p. 796.

See generally Rose, op, cit., pp. 393 f.

See on this point Juan Comas, 'Racial Myths', in Race and Science ... , pp. 13-55; Pierre Vallières points out the alienation effect of racism on the poor whites, the 'white niggers': 'white racism hides the reality from them by giving them the opportunity to despise an inferior, to crush him mentally or to pity him' and 'far from liberating them, imprisons them in a net of hate or paralyses them in fear of one day having to confront the black man in a civil war': White Niggers of America (New York, 1971), p. 21.