Can we connect philosophy with racism?

In Antebellum South the white man would not work for anyone because he considered laboring for hire made him no better than the black slave and his superiority to the black man was essential to his self-esteem. There was no labor class in the Antebellum South. The slaves did the labor but the slave was a capital investment just like a horse or oxen. Here was a total society without a laboring class.

What were some of the effects of no free labor in the South? The most important factor I suspect was that the ordinary white man felt any labor was beneath his dignity. This lack of ‘free labor’ led to many of the characteristics of the Southern man and woman that probably is a factor today in the still distinctive character of the Southerner.

I think that the wheel might be a useful analogy for understanding the mind of the South. The spokes of the wheel represent the essential components of all societies--economy, law and culture. The hub to which all spokes focus is labor. The Antebellum South revolved around slave labor.

Classical Athenians “believed that to render any form of service, especially the physical, to another man in return for money, even if only for a short time, was a form of slavery, and unacceptable to a free man”.

Ideology universalizes, absolutises, and reifies (makes an object of) abstract concepts. The ideological group converts its concrete experiences and its abstract concepts into universal standards (a form of philosophy?) for the whole society.

A society like our own, in which there exists free labor that “sells” its skills, capacities, and activities to another, must find a means of defining humans in such a way that such individuals can still feel like complete and free individuals even though they sell part of them self to another.

How does a society define the human essence in such a way that the individual “sells” only that which is alienable to him or her while maintaining the essence of a free individual?

“In order to say that his freedom is not compromised when his abilities, skills, and activities are placed at another man’s disposal, he had to be defined in the barest possible manner.”

If a person’s skills, capacities, and activities are alienable to her what is his essence that may be considered to be unalienable? Capitalism, wherein labor is commodified and thus faces this problem, has located the human essence as being the capacity for freedom of choice and will.

“The individual was, above all, an agent. As long as he was not physically overpowered, hypnotized, or otherwise deprived of his powers of choice and will, his actions were uniquely his, and therefore his sole responsibility. It did not matter how painful his alternatives were, how much his character had been distorted by his background and upbringing and how much his capacities of choice and will were debilitated by his circumstances.”

This description seems much like what we Americans now use to assuage our guilt when consciously considering the death and dismemberment, physical and mental (PTSD), of our soldiers serving, dying, and being fragmented in our war in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Quotes from Marx’s Theory of Ideology by Bhikhu Parekh

Hi all

You would be closer by linking "lack of empathy" to all fields where you or your partners benefit more than those you make use of. It matters not what the external parameters are , whether they be slavery, war,economic domination. You simply are disaffected by the actual process and are therefore an observer.

Most cultures moralize away the wrongs they do to others by citing different mantras that they come to believe justify what is going on. "survival of the fittest" God is right" "their actions threaten our society"....just for starters.

Slavery didn't even need to go there as it was always "the way things were". Alternatives were not even considered until modern times. To pay for labor when it could be captured and used free of charge would be seen as tremendous folly. Even reading the conditions of labor in "employed" offices up till the union movement shows that enterprise saw itself as an overseer of society rather than giving an economic basis to common folk that they could bank.

It's one thing to sit here now and moralize about the rights and wrongs of how society has developed, but it is another to hold current races and arch types accountable for "how things were". What they preach now is of course , another matter.

But look at the world as it is. How much free time DO you have to enjoy that boat you paid too much for and now have to work 60 hours a week to keep up with . Very few simply stop at the mortgage and say...."well I'm sooo much better off than a slave"...They are more likely to blame the finance company for making money too available and causing them to get over their heads.

No matter what we ask for , it will never be enough for the human race. Always we are looking for someone to blame for why we are not completely "in paradise". The rich die from rich problems, the poor from poor problems. The rich find snippets of happiness from rich people things, and the poor find snippets of happiness from poor people things.

The most movement comes from the middle classes , who graduate towards or away from one end or the other. It was interesting to read recently that a culture which is nearly decimated, like the Japanese and the Germans in world war two, is much more likely to spring back and build stronger in the long run than the victors like USA and ENGLAND. The reason is that they had to rebuild from scratch and everything was modern and new. Unlike the victors who continued to use old factories and facilities.

Cheers
Iseason

The connection between philosophy and racism exists in the discipline called CT (Critical Thinking). Philosophy might appropriately be said to be about radically critical self-consciousness. CT is the art and science of good judgment and can, in my opinion, be considered as 'philosophy lite'. Social theory becomes an ideology when CT is not part of the general attitude of a population.

Coberst

In this opening statement you are claiming the reason that racism existed!. Then claim that there were no white people willing to work !. In effect , you are stating that there were no poor except Slaves?

Quote :In Antebellum South the white man would not work for anyone because he considered laboring for hire made him no better than the black slave and his superiority to the black man was essential to his self-esteem. There was no labor class in the Antebellum South. The slaves did the labor but the slave was a capital investment just like a horse or oxen. Here was a total society without a laboring class.

What were some of the effects of no free labor in the South? The most important factor I suspect was that the ordinary white man felt any labor was beneath his dignity. This lack of ‘free labor’ led to many of the characteristics of the Southern man and woman that probably is a factor today in the still distinctive character of the Southerner.Unquote.



Racism does not exist because one race sees working as beneath them . That is an absurd statement. Racism exists because one person cannot place themselves into another man's shoes.

The reasons for racism are as varied as there are races to have racism against!. One NEW variety is reverse racism, which is actually not that new. Whereby the very races who have fought for centuries for freedom are calling each other "Nigger". Some would argue that it is because they can.....And I would agree. But it is much more likely to be "because someone else can't".

You see , racism is exclusion based on race. It doesn't matter what you are being excluded from whether it be wealth, freedom, equality, harmony, education or anything which is gained as a right by your neighbor. Exclusion is the only criteria that matters. (inclusion , if you count tribulation).

Your example of southerners is "learned racism". No different from two warring tribes in Africa or the Dutch and Germans . And the same thing applies to religious boundaries that cause so much strife. The whites in your example didn't learn the value of work because their peers had done much groundwork to ensure they were not seen within the class that slaves were held.
Even so, they were the last of a dying breed along with the rest of the world which had begun to gain a social conscience that had been severely lacking for all the time PRECEDING the new order.

The world moved into another stage of social development. What worries me is that some would like us to believe that the development , once achieved , stops. It has never done so and never will. As soon as the tide moves in one direction , it attracts the ingredients of it's ultimate downfall.....Success, greed, sloth, complacency.

Nothing stands for long. racism is not a white man's disease. It has never been a white man's disease. It is truly interracial, inter sexual and one of the key driving forces in patch protection. In order for one group to benefit, they must take it from another, and then protect what they have gained from further theft. You can only do this for so long as every society degrades as it grows long in the tooth. Strife is part of that process, both from within and without.

Cheers
Iseason

I claim that ideology has taken social theory and has baked into the theory certain biases that suit a group. Racism is such an ideology. In fact religion is such an ideology. We can see that all civilization is founded on religion, i.e. civilization as we know it is founded and advances on ideology. This is so perhaps because humans are not capable of the degree of intellectual sophistication demanded for a society that is based upon the comprehension of and the confidence in reason.