Reagan Friend

Daniels Paper – White Supremacy on Economics

29 November, 2018
 Ever since the beginning of civilization in the United States, there has been great

influence by White Supremacy on the countries economical state. From the early decades of

slavery, the white male has dominated the economic world beginning with slaves and taking

advantage of labor to present day institutionalized discrimination. In today’s society, the White

Supremes are able to mask their assault on minorities and their rise to equality in economics. In

early development, the Aryan group was able to uphold their economic power through slaves by

little to no pay. In the current society, racist assumptions and discriminations are used to keep

minorities from moving up in the pay gap, job tasking, and overall economic gain. Although the

Aryan population has managed to keep discrimination in the work place subtler than slavery, it

has not gone unnoticed. In 2015, a policy report by Joseph Stiglitz and the Roosevelt Institute

published a report describing the framework that we as an American Economic system build off

of. “These rules, the report argues, shape the economy and thus shape a range of opportunities

and outcomes. They are like ‘regulatory and legal frameworks that make up the economy’...”

(Flynn, A., Holmberg, S., Wong, F., & Warren, D. T., 2018). As a nation, we have done poorly

in creating equal economic opportunities for all people in order to allow for positive outcomes in

the lives of every member in the economic structure. Lack of opportunity has caused a gap

within the economic system; One that White supremacy started and has yet to completely

withdraw.

Starting with the movement to America, in the initial build of a democracy and an

economic system, America was founded off slavery and hard, unpaid labor. During this time,

with the north and south being separated, it came to initiate not only tension, but differences in

labor and laws. In the north, there was more specialized work and higher education that

eventually, would be offered to all races. However, before this happened, the business world of
the north was dominated by the white male. The south was also dominated by non-other that the

white male, but in a different context as they did more of the business aspects while the slaves

did the work. The segregation in the workforce seemed to be the best display of economic

growth for the new country. “Southern businessmen embraced segregation because they believed

it was a system that controlled both black resistance and white violence and in turn, fostered

economic stability and growth” CLUNE, E. E., 2010). With segregation being the prime action

at this time, it allowed for white supremacy to have full control over the economy and how it

works. The white male was able to suppress the Black community by having full control on what

the economy was based around and how it worked while the slaves did the work. When

considering the selling of slaves, and the labor that they produced for no pay, the “industry” of

buying and selling slaves and their work was extremely profitable. “Putting all these capital costs

together indicates that $1,400-$1,450 was a fair approximation of the typical or average total

investment per male slave in terms of present values” (Conrad, A., & Meyer, J., 1958). With

these characteristics, the economic system became very developed and efficient in regions where

cotton was the main production; while the less agricultural areas used the buying and selling of

slaves to support their economy. It is evident that through just these two factors that early periods

of economic development have been dominated by white supremacy and their massacre of black

rights.

Even as the social construct developed and rights were slowly allowed at the bare

minimum to the African- American population, segregation by other factors still subjected their

population to the subordinate. While slavery was strictly segregation and expulsion, as rights

were given to them, it became a different type of discrimination. It became exclusion of black

citizens’ ability to attain an equal job and pay in comparison with a white citizen, residential
segregation as they were secluded to the slums of every city, and Institutionalized discrimination

with unequal actions towards values, beliefs, and laws. “Cotton textile mills had moved from

New England to take advantage of cheaper labor in the South. For example, in the 1880s mill

wages for adult males averaged between $2.50 and $4.00 a week in the Carolinas, as compared

to $6 and $7 in New York’s clothing shops in 1885” (Reich, M., 2017). Since majority of the

African –American population was in the south at this time, white supremacy played its part in

the economy once again by indirectly discriminating against the subordinate by deliberately

taking advantage of labor with lower pay in regions where their race was more prevalent. This

allowed for racial discrimination to take place without direct racial practice against the

subordinate. This continued the belief that equal rights were developing at a fast pace or even the

newly developed racial assumption that African- Americans are incapable of producing at the

same rate/quality as the white man, therefore the black man should not be paid the same amount,

when in fact that was not the case.

Once mass segregation was more or less eliminated, the working class began to

understand that the level of pay and benefits that came with their dangerous and difficult work

were unsatisfactory. It was at this time that the Aryan population acted on the economy once

again by denying unions between this population as a way to remain the dominant race. By once

again, segregating the work such as white males being supervisors or high skilled positions and

black males being in the laborer positions, it began to draw the line once again. Not only have

they segregated the work place, but there have also been occurrences where planter and

merchant’s urged employers to fire their black workers and hire white workers instead.

“Economic elites were able to capitalize on growing tensions between working-class whites and

African Americans and other minority groups that emerged during the civil rights struggle to
transform the US political landscape” (Inwood, J. F. J., 2015). By doing this, the elites created a

split-labor market by deliberately pinning the working white male against the minority laborers.

Though both of the populations felt that they were underpaid and under-benefitted, Capitalist

were able to entice the two groups into believing major issues were caused by the other group.

Through the use of competition theory, wealthy capitalist created a perception of economic

competition between the two populations.

In the current times of America, white supremacy has no less of a handle on the economy

that it did in previous decades. The White male is still the assumed and most typical option for

higher up managers and CEO positions in comparison to any minority in the country. Although

pay gaps have decreased and racial stereotyping is more closely monitored, racism is still present

and unequal in the economic world. “By outlining and reworking the changing nature of racism,

from the overt white supremacy of previous eras to the subtle, yet no less destructive kind of

racism of contemporary US society, the Southern Strategy speaks to the changing socio-spatial

manifestations of racism in the USA” (Inwood, J. F. J., 2015). Even though there is no blatant

slavery and the out-right racial abuse has declined, lack of pay, benefits, and positioning still

affect minorities every day as the white male still holds the dominant positon. Since the

distribution of unfairness in the economic world occurs, it is automatically assumed that

minorities are incapable of performing at the same educational level as the Aryan population.

“They contribute only a little to national production, their work is concentrated at the lowest end

of the economic ladder, in the basic low-skill jobs that are dirty and dangerous” (Bales, K., 2006,

February). This statement is true based on causation of the white supremacist hand being in the

economic construction. In turn, it causes for the Aryan population to confirm their belief that

minorities are uneducated and incapable of performing the same task as the white male. Over the
course of time in the U.S., deliberate discrimination has placed minorities at the bottom of the

barrel while expecting them to still attempt the same level of ability as the white male while

being suppressed. The minority may not want the low-skill jobs that are dirty and dangerous, but

in many areas and times in history, that is all that this white supremacy based economy has

allowed them.

Many people, typically a part of the white supremacy beliefs, consider the change in

rights, pay, and opportunities to have been more of a gift rather than natural born rights to

minorities. As America has definitely made improvements upon granting equal rights to all

citizens, there are still so many racial implications on economic status and flat out ability to be at

an equal standing with the white male. Some believe that, “the North provided them with

expanded opportunities in all realms of life. This great migration continued between 190 and

1970 as 4.4 million more blacks left the south” (Bonilla-Silva, E.,2001); And while it did indeed

do that, there were also 1.8 million between 1910 and 1940 who were discriminated and even

massacred for migrating to the North and West. When they arrived they faced severe racial

assault and economic constraints from white workers, current labor unions, and a whole Aryan

population in general. The White Supremacy idea is to create this belief that minorities aren’t

born with equal rights but instead, the Aryan population ‘generously grants’ them with it. White

supremacy also likes to include that by 1970, blacks were geographically diffused throughout the

states rather than segregated, had increased their levels of education to attain jobs, and developed

social and political organizations (Bonilla-Silva, E. 2001). What is not considered in that

statement is that although all of this was slowly attained by the black community in the 70’s, is

that segregation is not part of equal rights regardless of color, they had little to no education to
begin with due to slavery, and they had no ability to create social or political organizations

beforehand.

White Supremacy has been able to contain minorities in the lower levels of the economic

system by deliberately dismantling any chance of getting ahead of the White male. Minorities

may have been able to surpass the white male in the pay gap or earned a high position every now

and then but, it did not go without a long history of discrimination and over reaching

assumptions that they are not capable. To this day white supremacy holds dominance over the

subordinate minorities, no matter how much America has shrunk this gap. There is still racism,

institutionalized discrimination, and faulty people who make total economic equality impossible.

The opportunities have not been equally distributed in history by the hand of white supremacy

and still holds a grasp on economic structure today.

 References

Bales, K. (2006, February). Testing a Theory of Modern Slavery. Retrieved from

http://lastradainternational.org/lsidocs/bales_test_theory_0607.pdf

Bonilla-Silva, E. (2001). White supremacy and racism in the post-civil rights era. Boulder, CO:

L. Rienner.

CLUNE, E. E. (2010). From Light Copper to the Blackest and Lowest Type: Daniel Tompkins

and the Racial Order of the Global New South. Journal of Southern History, 76(2), 275–

314. Retrieved from

http://search.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.loras.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=504

52764&site=ehost-live

Conrad, A., & Meyer, J. (1958). The Economics of Slavery in the Ante Bellum South. Journal of

Political Economy, 66(2), 95-130. Retrieved from

http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy.loras.edu/stable/1827270

Flynn, A., Holmberg, S., Wong, F., & Warren, D. T. (2018). The hidden rules of race barriers to

inclusive economy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Inwood, J. F. J. (2015). Neoliberal racism: the ‘Southern Strategy’ and the expanding

geographies of white supremacy. Social & Cultural Geography, 16(4), 407–423.

https://doi-org.ezproxy.loras.edu/10.1080/14649365.2014.994670

Reich, M. (2017). Racial inequality - a political-economic analysis. Princeton University Press.