Classism and Other Easier Ways for White People to Talk Around Racism

Classism [noun] a biased or discriminatory attitude based on distinctions made between social or economic classes.

It seems in our "post-racial" America we are finding more and better ways to circumvent any real conversations about race in the public sphere.  We have a black president now which, apparently, magically alleviates our society of any need for reconciliation.  And because of that faulty assumption, so prevalent in certain corners of public discourse, talking about race in any way that does not conform to "color blind" rhetoric becomes taboo.  Suffice it to say, if you think a "color blind" society would solve all of our problems, you're probably white and spend time convincing yourself and others that you're not racist because you have a black friend.

Classism is the new racism for white America.  And it's a convenient way for white Americans to frame their understanding of inequality because, for an overwhelming number of us, it alleviates our feelings of guilt and/or paranoia over the reality of inequity in this country.  Most of us aren't rich so we can justify becoming righteously indignant over wealth parity.  We can talk about the increasing concentration of wealth (which equals political speech! Thanks Supreme Court!) without having to face our own staggering inability to understand the part we play in the systems of disadvantage we accept.  The word doesn't hit us like racism does.  It doesn't convict us or make us squirm or react so defensively when it is used in our presence.  No, no.  You see, we are the "middle-class" and we are normal, everyday, human beings.  We stand for middle class sensibilities.  We're the backbone of the American economy.

The problem with shifting the conversation from racism to classism so that we can "move beyond" the narrow focus of racism is that classism is still a system of disadvantage and privilege predicated on race.  It might be easier to talk about, it might be less threatening, it might not be full of so many uncomfortable conversations but that's the thing about Euphemism, easier to talk about with a healthy dose of disingenuousness thrown in for the sake of feelings.  I want to stress that I'm in no way implying that classism doesn't exist or that it doesn't disadvantage certain groups of people but I cannot accept arguments and conversations that treat classism as if wealth was the only thing standing between equality and disparity in this country.  Thus, a chart (from an interesting study):

It's pretty clear we're not just talking about wealth as the problem or, more accurately, that wealth is the all encompassing lynch-pin in the understanding of American disparity.  We're talking about red-lining and the lack of inclusion for minorities during the economic recovery of the Great Depression.  We're still talking about systems of disadvantage that have been orchestrated and maintained by white America.  And to a large part, I feel like we're still talking about the pathology of privilege that continues to feed on the fears of middle-class white America.  This well-known scene from Lee Mun Wah's The Color of Fear helps illustrate this pathology a bit:

So, we exist in a culture where the majority culture (power) has been willing to accept and promulgate (sometimes through ignorance) systems of disadvantage in which they readily benefit.  These systems are largely ignored and overlooked by the group that is implementing them because we have the privilege of not having to deal with their consequences and can continue to live in a state of ignorance.  And now, in this most recent economic downturn, white America has been unwittingly hit by these systems that have been used for so long to privilege their own.  We have experienced a piece of the disadvantage that our brothers and sisters of color have been living with and have known about for most, if not all, of their lives (and we've incorrectly placed the blame of this problem on our black president, a bastardization of the truth that so complete that if I were to actually call it racist in public I would be laughed out of the room).  And although it has come primarily in the form of economic hardship, it should provide us with a moment to reflect upon all the systems of advantage and disadvantage we navigate and negotiate in this country every day of our lives.  It provides us with an opportunity to raise our own consciousness, to challenge the fear and paranoia we accept into our narrative and accept the experiences of life in America that those with black skin and red skin and yellow skin have endured.

Yes classism is a legitimate problem.  Yes its reach can be felt across ethnic lines in society.  But to try and talk about classism without also addressing racism does us all a disservice.  It's a convenient way to gloss over the true lay of the land and a white-washing of the realities of experience in America.  It would be easy for us to latch onto classism as the explanation for the current climate of America's economy but my feeling is it would only serve to rob us of the opportunity to identify the fear we've agreed to live with, the fear that keeps us from accepting the voices of American experience that differ wildly from our own.