Race vs. Class in America

There has been a lot of flap about the holes in the evacuation plans of New Orleans, and aid reaching those who have been stranded there. The stories are horrific, there is no other way to put it. The shortfalls in the planning for such a disaster and implementation of aid are very real, and I for one won’t try to excuse them. But more and more I keep hearing things like, “it’s just because they are poor and black,” and ,”if these were white folk, they would have help by now.” The truth, I suspect, is that the failures in relief have nothing to do at all with who these people are. It’s who they are that got them in the position of in the first place – anyone who had the resources to get out did so. Those who had no where to go, or no means to escape, were stuck. Of course it was the poor of the city. Being the deep south, where the large majority of the poor are “people of color,” of course it was the poor and black who were stuck in such dire straights.
I truly believe that reducing this problem into mere racism is overly simplistic, and, in the end, counterproductive. It’s not nearly so much about race as it is about class, and class issues are endemic to the human race – as much as we like to believe we are progressing, the progress is miniscule. Racism does exist, and the obvious correspondance between racial divides and social divides make it seem more like racism than it really is, but we aren’t going to get rid of “racism” until we get rid of the ingrained belief that because a certain class of people are doing better than others, they must naturally be better.
Here’s a perfect example. I was having a conversation with an aquaintance about an Indian fellow we both knew. My aquaintance had an awful lot of derogatory things to say about this person’s “people,” until I finally told him to shut up, and that I had no use for those who judged someone by the color of their skin. He essentially said, “nice knowing you,” in response; nothing would so much as dent his bigotry.
The kicker is this guy is only of second generation immigrant extraction himself. He is Italian, proud of it; his parents came here from Italy. Now, I remember very well the day when Italian immigrants were considered the lowest class riff-raff imaginable…they were the dregs of the area, and commonly referred to as WOP’s (which was a dealy insult at the time). You would think this guy would have compassion on new entrants to the country based on how his own parents were treated – but no, he’s as bad or worse. His parents’ generation worked hard, learned to fit in, and mostly overcame the stigma. No doubt, the SE Asian community eventually will too. But the disdain has nothing at all to do with race or country of origin, not really – it’s the fact that they are different, and mostly poor. The ones that aren’t poor are treated like they must have cheated somehow, and “stole” their prosperity from those more deserving. They haven’t clawed their way up the social ladder – yet.
Now African-Americans are something of a special case. I still believe that most of the disdain leveled towards them is class-based rather than racial. But, as a race, they have been given a very raw deal in this country. Brought in as slaves, then cut loose generations later with absolutely no idea how to function as free people, it is no wonder that a great many have not been able to escape the cycle of poverty they are trapped in. The disdain they are treated with only makes it harder to break free of it.
Only when we get our noses out of the air and accept that poverty and lack of opportunity do not make a human being less valuable will we even begin to settle this issue. It will be a long time coming.
Edit 9/4/05: Seems I’m not alone in this opinion; Ursula, a blogger currently living in the UK, but formerly of the US, agrees with me that this is a class issue, and her race puts more weight on her opinion than mine does. I might also say she puts it more eloquently than I as well.