Date: Sun, 9 Mar 2003 03:50:57 -0800 (PST)
From: Michael Handelman <mhandelman1-AT-yahoo.com>
Subject: AUT: Is the white working class (in the US) less racist than the middle/upper-class?


Yesterday, my brother showed me this disgusting
neo-nazi crap. What I found interesting is that both
stylistically (it sounded like a university paper),
and in terms of content (references to the Kerner
commission, Voters Rights Act, Watts Rebellion etc)
the person who wrote it sounded like, someone who had
a substantial amount of post-secondary education.


This  started me to think about, whether or not the
white working class, in the US was less racist than
the white middle/upper class. From an economic or
self-interest perspective, the white working class has
the least to gain, and the most to lose from racism
(eg places which have the strongest inter-racial
unions, have better working conditions, than places
which have "whites-only" unions.), but of course,
people don't always act in their economic
self-interest.


Even things like working class support for George
Wallace (or the various right-wing populists on
talk-radio) is not really indicative of them being
just as racist, as the middle/upper-class. At least
post 1964, Wallace employed far more class resentment
rhetoric, than racist rhetoric (eg his
anti-intellectualism—"pointy haired intellectuals who
can't even park their cars straight" etc was tapping
into the view that intellectuals' primary reason for
existing was to develop new ways to control the
working class.)

__________________________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Tax Center - forms, calculators, tips, more
http://taxes.yahoo.com/


     --- from list aut-op-sy-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---