Week 3

Thursday, October 19, 2017 3:28 PM

Victor jara

Definitions of key words

• Exploitation : An unjust use of another person for
ones own profit or advantage
○ Often used to talk about the exploitation of
labor
• Discrimination : to make or engage in a difference in
treatment of people on a basis other than individual
merit
• Privilege : a right to do something or an immunity
granted to someone as a peculiar benefit, advantage,
or favor

• System of discrimination is created so labor markets

are rationalized
• Discrimination does not just happen
• Prejudice can be manipulated
○ After ww1 british made british stability - british
could not afford this - americans stepped in
§ Knowing they would have to use military
they began teaching the generation being
born - anti-islamic
§ Anti-islamic propaganda
• Prejudice is created and nurtured by upper classes
• Discrimination exists and generally comes out of
government policy
• Point of prejudice and discrimination is to allow for
greater exploitation of labor of people of color
• Most white people are in working class so most are
exploited laborers but in labor markets with less
exploitation than people of color

Material realities of Racial inequality

 ○ Rate if infant mortality - how many babies die for every thousand in every
group
§ Whites have greater access to health care
○ Something going on in health care system
• Life expectancy
○ Pale skin people (statistically) live longer
○ Health care, wealth, education
• Education
○ Competitive individualism
○ Education is important for people in working class
○ Improve your chances at having a better education -> be white
• Income
• Wealth
• Un-Employment
○ Whenever you come across a statistic telling you about unemployment
rate of white people you can figure out the unemployment rate for
people of color
§ White is 5% - brown would be about 50% higher - black would be
double the white
§ Government doesn’t count people who went to jail, military people
who cant find jobs after serving, and people who got tired of
looking for a job because they couldn’t find one

Questions
• How does your economic class position affect your perception of racism?
• Is the culture of white supremacy and nationalism so deep that you cant see all
the racism operating in society?
• Can policies advertise as beneficial actually be harmful and deliverability so?
• Can you clarify or identify hidden racial and gender assumptions in your thinking
by flipping identities?
• What is of greater danger: hate groups or the operation of state bureaucracies?
○ What is a greater danger to you/us? Prejudice and hate or moral
indifference and/or willful ignorance?
• Why be passive?