George Floyd and the Costs of Racial Capitalism
George Floyd and the Costs of Racial Capitalism, LAWCHA, Ken Estey, June 10, 2020
Some History
A little bit about LAWCHA. The “Labor and Working Class History Association” is an organization of scholars, teachers, students, labor educators, and activists who seek to promote public and scholarly awareness of labor and working-class history through research, writing, and organizing. It grew out of the conversations among labor historians over the course of a couple of years between 1996 and 1998 about the importance of giving labor history greater visibility nationally in both academic circles and public arenas.
Introduction
With all the news on the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, little is being said about George other than his demise at the hands of the police. Ken Etsey writes on George’s background as a person and why so many other Black Americans like George arrive at a similar point in time where they can lose their lives over so minor as a “supposed” counterfeit 20 dollar bill. Many others like George struggle in what is described as a Racial Capitalist economy which values flexibility to “hire and fire” and profit over Labor stability and good pay. It is a good read. James McElroy at LAWCHA gave AB the go-ahead to post Ken Etsey’s commentary about George and a May economy in which there are gains in white employment while black and Latinx unemployment still rises.
George Floyd’s Story
George Floyd’s public viewing was held the afternoon of June 8th at The Fountain of Praise Church in southwest Houston. A private funeral service will occur tomorrow followed by burial in Houston Memorial Gardens Cemetery about sixteen miles south of Houston’s Third Ward, Floyd’s home for many years. Along with services in Minneapolis last Thursday and Raeford, North Carolina on Saturday, these memorials ensure his life will be remembered. Protests in the District of Columbia, all fifty states, and fourteen countries ensure the manner of his death will never be forgotten.
Another meaningful way to honor George Floyd is to reflect on how he lived his life, including the work he did, paid and unpaid. His work life reflects what many workers experience in this pandemic period — pervasive job losses for some and risky working conditions for others. Workers of color have suffered disproportionately from both. Floyd’s life and the protests his death sparked reflect the consequences of racial capitalism.
Before he was a symbol, Floyd was a man known to his family and friends as “Big Floyd” and the ‘Gentle Giant.’ Much has been made of Floyd’s physical size. But he thought big, too. Even in second grade, at Frederick Douglass Elementary School, he looked ahead with dreams about his life. He wrote, ‘When I grow up, I want to be a Supreme Court judge.’ Floyd grew up in the Third Ward of Houston, in the ‘Cuney Homes where generations of black working-class families have lived, a housing development named after Norris Wright Cuney, a prominent nineteenth-century African American businessman and politician in Texas.
The Third Ward, a largely Black working-class area, was also home to Houston’s epic struggle for racial equality. The area includes Emancipation Park, created in 1872 to commemorate Juneteenth, and the grocery store and luncheonette where Houston’s first sit-in occurred during the Civil Rights movement. The Third Ward was also home to Beyoncé.
After a few years away at college, Floyd returned to the Third Ward, where he began recording with DJ Screw, a central figure in Houston’s hip hop scene. Floyd recorded part of ‘Sittin’ on Top of the World”: ‘Welcome to the ghetto, it’s Third Ward, Texas.’ Floyd not only made music, he also customized cars to build in tape decks.
The challenges of living in the Third Ward overwhelmed the opportunities Floyd found there. In 1998, he was arrested on a theft charge. In 2009, aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon landed him in jail in East Texas for four years. But in 2013, he returned home to start anew. He became active in the neighborhood outreach ministries around the Cuney Homes led by Pastor PT Ngwolo of Resurrection Houston. Corey Paul, a rapper, a friend of Floyd’s who was also associated with Resurrection remembers Floyd’s approach to the work: “If it’s God business, then it’s my business.’ Floyd helped with set up for ministry events. He was spotted once carrying thirty chairs at once.
Yet Floyd struggled to find work in Houston. By 2018, he moved to Minneapolis seeking new opportunities. Once there, he continued the ministry of mentoring young people. He also found security work in a Salvation Army store in downtown Minneapolis. Later, he trained to become a truck driver and eventually settled into a combination of truck driving and security work at the Conga Latin Bistro, a restaurant and dance club in Northeast Minneapolis. His boss, Jovanni Tunstrom, said Floyd was always cheerful and had a good attitude. ‘He would dance badly to make people laugh. I tried to teach him how to dance because he loved Latin music, but I couldn’t because he was too tall for me.’
Floyd held that position for five years until Gov. Tim Walz’s COVID-19 stay-at-home order closed down Minneapolis just before midnight on March 27. His job became one of the millions lost to the pandemic in March and April. It was time to start all over again. The day before Floyd died, a friend gave him contact information for a temporary jobs agency.
Floyd’s biography gives us a sense of him as a person, but his work experiences also remind us of how many people struggle in an economy that values flexibility and profit over stability and good pay. In the midst of a pandemic, it is very tempting to engage in nostalgia for a pre-COVID-19 ‘normalcy.’ But such wistfulness ignores how the intertwining strands of white supremacy and capitalist political economy create a virulent racial capitalism.
As Cedric Robinson explains, racialism inevitably permeated the social structures that emerged from capital, including the workplace, the primary site where racial capitalism is materially and painfully experienced. In this health and economic crisis, workers of color suffer the most. Even as the positive May jobs report took experts by surprise with gains in employment for white workers, black and Latinx unemployment rates continued to rise.
The murders of George Floyd and so many others make clear that black lives do not matter under racial capitalism. They are of no consequence at all. The dehumanizing manner of his death leaves no doubt. The Black Lives Matter movement rightly calls for an end to racism and police brutality. This is essential. But the protests cannot stop there. As the economic and health effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have amply demonstrated, racial capitalism has long since deemed the bodies of workers of color only fit for whatever capital may have in mind for them. This is especially evident now in the spread of COVID-19 in the meatpacking industry among Latinx workers and among Amazon workers, most of whom are people of color.
Keeanga Yamhatta-Taylor explains, ‘The coronavirus has scythed its way through black communities, highlighting and accelerating the ingrained social inequities that have made African-Americans the most vulnerable to the disease.’ Her essay highlights how ‘the state is failing black people,’ but that is not an accident. The state is designed for exactly that.
That is why efforts to suppress the protests – including the military maneuver conducted against peaceful protesters in Lafayette Park last Monday to clear the way for Trump’s pathetic photo op — have been so ferocious. Racial capitalism relies on the military and police arms of the state to maintain its version of ‘peace” and “normalcy.’
The legacy of George Floyd’s life, his contributions to the younger generation, his unpaid and paid labor would have been significant on its own. But his legacy has become bigger that he ever could have imagined. The uplifting of his life in the breath of so many protesters honors ‘Big Floyd.’ And the militarized response has revealed clearly the coiled snake of “normal” racialized violence at the heart of our social compact — and the willingness of the state to support this arrangement no matter the cost.”
Uh, what??? This post could be made by any group in the US. Prime age White men are slaughtered by cops at a greater clip than nonwhites.
And with Floyd, I am not sure if was by cop. Personal vendettas are nasty.
My biggest worry is that if you take away the rednecks’ symbolism then all that will be left of them is angry white men with loaded guns. We might then need a few cops after all.
What this highlights is that BLM is more than just “stop killing us on the streets,” it is about Believe in our Lives’ Meaning (bad acronym, I know, sorry). Excellent article that deservedly showcases the human value of each individual in these communities, which then exposes the horrid waste of human capital that treating black lives as chattel creates, and is easily contrasted with the potential these communities have were they presented with equal resources and treatment under the law.
Also @Bert, there is a video you idiot troll. And yes, this is true of poor whites, the mechanisms are different and the ones that are the same seem to be advocated by poor noseless whites just to spite other communities of color.
“What this highlights is that BLM is more than just “stop killing us on the streets,” it is about Believe in our Lives’”
Could this have been said better, perhaps? I get your drift.
You’re totally right, I was listening to this Midland song and thought of “BeLieve in Me” but that’s not the name of the Gladys Knight song despite it being the hook. Name of the song sampled is Neither One of Us (Want to Be the First to Say Goodbye) and the Midland track is final credits which I thoroughly enjoy. Anyway I should not be in charge of naming things.
Idriss:
I like a good and friendly conversation, Likbez copied one from another site I had made there. It fits but I stopped short in completing it as there were multiple pages of it. I will repeat it here as it has bearing to the topic at hand.
A while back, I was researching the issues you state in your last paragraph. Was about ten pages into it and had to stop as I was drawn out of state and country.
From my research.
While not as overt in the 20th century, the distinction of black slave versus poor white man has kept the class system alive and well in the US in the development of a discriminatory informal caste system.
This distraction of a class level lower than the poorest of the white has kept them from concentrating on the disproportionate, and growing, distribution of wealth and income in the US.
For the lower class, an allowed luxury, a place in the hierarchy and a sure form of self esteem insurance.
Sennett and Cobb (1972) observed that class distinction sets up a contest between upper and lower class with the lower social class always losing and promulgating a perception amongst themselves the educated and upper classes are in a position to judge and draw a conclusion of them being less than equal.
The hidden injury is in the regard to the person perceiving himself as a piece of the woodwork or seen as a function such as “George the Porter.”
It was not the status or material wealth causing the harsh feelings; but, the feeling of being treated less than equal, having little status, and the resulting shame.
The answer to status for many was violence.
James Gilligan wrote “Violence; Reflections on A National Epidemic.” He worked as a prison psychiatrist and talked with many of the inmates of the issues of inequality and feeling less than those around them. His findings are in his book which is not a long read and adds to the discussion. A District Judge in Alaska suggested I read it. “Imposed shame” is a prime cause of violence.
A little John Adams for you.
“The poor man’s conscience is clear . . . he does not feel guilty and has no reason to . . . yet, he is “ashamed.” Mankind takes no notice of him. He rambles unheeded.
In the midst of a crowd; at a church; in the market . . . he is in as much obscurity as he would be in a garret or a cellar.
He is not disapproved, censured, or reproached; he is not seen . . . To be wholly overlooked, and to know it, are intolerable.”
The Works of John Adams Discourses on Davila, Page 239
A little Wilburys for you after the death of Orbinson. End of the Line
” … his work experiences also remind us of how many people struggle in an economy that values flexibility and profit over stability and good pay … ”
Instead of moaning about the symptoms — why oh why cannot everybody start screaming about the should be easy to sell cure — IF ANYBODY EVER TRIES TO SELL IT:
a federal labor law mandating REGULARLY SCHEDULED UNION CERT/RECERT/DECERT ELECTIONS at every private workplace?
https://onlabor.org/why-not-hold-union-representation-elections-on-a-regular-schedule/
I must cite this as THE ANSWER to about ten different problems here, every week. It is such an obvious answer and so obviously easy to sell to the electorate — especially in those battleground states that abandoned the Democratic party in 2016 because Obama and Hillary and their ilk never did a thing for them — that I wrack my brain daily trying to figure out how to get somebody to pick it up and run with it.
I agree on your points Denis, but this post focusses on the symptoms and not the cure because it is, tragically, an autopsy, not a live diagnosis. 9 out of 10 posts are appropriate for your point, but perhaps not this one.
Hey Run, thanks for the comment and the sources, on my reading list now. Also, if I was unclear in my last paragraph those are the points I was alluding to. I wonder if you’ve added any thought (as if there is any bottom to this terrible analysis) of the impact that reducing all legal/ policy/ regulatory battles in Win/Loss format exacerbates all you have brought up. I mean that’s the part that seems to really give me pause and I have no idea how to break out of that cycle ->
An even more accessible way for the lower-income politically conservative class to overcome the shame is with victory instead of violence: victory in the political sphere, victory for the people who they’ve hitched their wagon to, victory to the beneficiaries of economic violence that visits upon those low income politically conservative and even more violence falling upon poor communities of color. This results in further shame, resulting in further need for political victories, resulting in further violence…
This is why I never considered practicing divorce law.
Frankly, I blame Jamie Horowitz.
Oh and thanks for the Wilburys’ tune, I literally just got around to listening to Rough and Rowdy Ways, which I needed badly, a small collection of big messages.
That cuts both ways.
Imagine what would happen to BLM (and really fast), if BLM, dared to protest against the destruction and looting of Africa’s wealthiest nation, reemergence of slavery markets, and demanded that Clinton and Obama be arrested for war crimes.
They are tolerated as long as they do not represent a threat to large corporations and profits of financial oligarchy, but mainly to themselves and the statues of Confederate generals.
Unhelpful and not germane to the discussion as whataboutisms are apt to be. Ther are more ways than 2 to cut. Blm is not one hive mind but rather a plea/demand/ exasperated shout to treat them like their own individuals which you failed to do. You’re use of the words, “tolerated” and “threat” is insidious, disturbing and inappropriate in more ways than I like to consider. Nothing you said is true or correct, you bring nothing but misery to a place of friendly conversation.
Don’t be so naïve. Financial oligarchy is generally race-blind. They treat everybody as slaves.
Politics is a nasty business, and if we return of “exasperated shout” topic (including attempts to topple statues ), the question that you should ask yourself is simple. It is a classic “Cue Bono?” question.
And the answer is “not blacks.” In no way, this will improve their chances of getting meaningful jobs. IMHO quite contrary, as from now on, they will be viewed as potential troublemakers. Expect the standard of living of blacks to drop further (like happened with Maidan participants in Ukraine)
All this “American Maidan” is just at attempt to lessen the social pressure created by the slow collapse of neoliberalism in the USA by blowing off steam.
And everybody in the US oligarchy, including Pelosi, Schumer, and Bezos, is pretty happy with street riots and the topping of statues as long as there are no “politically incorrect” demands for the protesters. For Amazon founder it is fully OK to protests against ‘white oppressors” as long as Bezos’s name is not mentioned and working conditions and the level of pay in this service centers are not discussed 🙂 The same in true for Uber honchos and many other corporations. They even will happily donate $100K each to BML so that they kept their mouth shut on those topics.
Most corporations now will probably make June 19 a corporate holiday (of course, instead of some other day 😉 to celebrate BLM and diversity. But that’s it.
Nobody wants to address social ills rampant in poor communities be they working white or working blacks or some other skin color.
Such as high crime rate (mainly black on black in black communities), “mass production” of single mothers, and as the result child poverty, mass unemployment, low educational achievement
Approximately 32 million adults in America are considered to be illiterate; about 14% of the entire adult population cannot read.
Between 40 and 44 million adults, or roughly 20 to 23% of adults in the U.S., are limited to reading at the basic or below basic proficiency levels.
Those people are virtually doomed to a low standard of living, BLM or no BLM.
Moreover, there are some obvious externalities here, and Neoliberal Dems now have a problem with BLM as a hot potato in their hands, don’t they?
As this is a typical “Divide and conquer” politics, the problem is the mass alienation of the white electorate.
FYI Neoliberal Dems policies since Clinton were about the betrayal of the working class and lower-middle class in favor of financial oligarchy.
Among other things, Clinton and Biden pushed very damaging for blacks legislation (including the law which led to the mass incarceration of blacks) and cut Social Security net from low-income families (the process which started under Reagan with his “welfare queens” PR stunt)
likbez:
Was John Adams discussing neoliberalism?
I think that was the son.
Snark . . .
Interesting proposition. If one is poor and hungry then one finds it intolerable to be overlooked, but if one has all their needs fulfilled then they most want to be overlooked.
I was extremely lucky growing up lower middle income in the fifties and sixties. We ate well since we grew and killed most of our own food. Only our clothes and home spoke to our economic reality. My mom had been raised better and taught cooking, canning, and housekeeping by her black nanny. My illiterate father could read blueprints and do light arithmetic, which elevated him to a state highways maintenance superintendent that was given construction jobs on highways and bridges if not the attendant title and paycheck. This was the context in which he lived “This distraction of a class level lower than the poorest of the white has kept them from concentrating on the disproportionate, and growing, distribution of wealth and income in the US.” My dad was a racist though, mostly in the abstract, rather than how he treated black individuals that he came to know.
https://studsterkel.wfmt.com/programs/dr-martin-luther-king-jr-discusses-civil-rights-regards-his-i-have-dream-speech
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. discusses civil rights in regards to his “I Have a Dream” speech (interviewed by Studs Terkel)
“His work life reflects what many workers experience in this pandemic period — pervasive job losses for some and risky working conditions for others.”
Grow up, folks. You won’t be able to have this both ways until a vaccine has been widely administered – if that ever happens at all. Although Fauci was reassuring a day or two ago, who knows whether that was a fake like like the original “14 days to keep the hospitals available” that grew past 3 months and promises to grow indefinitely?
Some viruses never get useful vaccines. For now, and maybe forever, people will either have to accept an average risk of a few days (and that’s all it is, almost regardless of age past 30, etc., except in the nursing home) of lifetime, or else hole up as Mole People forever. Bellyaching won’t alter that one jot. Things are tough all over.