It happens frequently enough to feel like a cliché: An online discussion about a racial issue gets derailed by a commenter suggesting the real root of the problem is class. I’ve fallen for it enough times to recognize it as a tactic deployed in bad faith, but there is a place for class in many of our conversations.
“Intersectional Class Struggle: Theory and Practice” (AK Press) offers historical analysis and hope for the future through a unified class struggle that reckons honestly with race and gender. It is dense reading, but the effort pays dividends.
Author Michael Beyea Reagan’s argument includes an analysis of the difference between slavery and waged labor. While it’s critical to note that any labor performed by enslaved persons is by definition done non-consensually, and the consequences of “striking” or withholding it could include torture or death, there are nevertheless parallels to be found. The intentionally unacknowledged and unpaid “reproductive labor” so often performed by women generates value recently estimated at $10.9 trillion per year. Without it, society can’t function, but attempts to make the work visible meet with resistance and denial, and the problem persists.
Attempts to conflate race and class, or to suggest resolving class disparity will somehow “solve” racism, fail to acknowledge the deep distrust that exists between Black and white people in the US. Reagan is meticulous about separating these strands of thought, and draws clear borders around them. When he describes how unionization helped to bridge the divisions between Blacks and poor whites, it’s with acknowledgement that the government and business leaders have historically promoted and exacerbated that divide for their own gain. If we are clear about our differences, we can honor rather than “overcome” them, and use that collective power to overcome larger systemic barriers together.
The very concept of intersectionality itself comes under critique here in a bold move by the author. Legal Scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw created the term to look at the ways race and gender “intersect,” to challenge analysis that kept them siloed and separate. Reagan notes that Crenshaw’s intersectional analysis of domestic violence, and its different effects based on race, is incomplete without also including the way class contributes. “Class is also an important determinant of domestic violence, as women’s access to paid work, property, or external resources and support is class-determined and affects their experience of intimate violence.” It’s by no means a harsh appraisal, but does call for more flexibility in our assessments.
The writing is generally in a dry, academic style that I always struggle with, but found especially frustrating here, given the dreamy, fertile conclusions the book points toward. Ibram X. Kendi condensed key points from his voluminous antiracist critique into a childrens’ picture book; I found myself wishing for a pop-up version of “Intersectional Class Struggle,” or perhaps an interactive map with literal intersections to explore. (I wouldn’t say no to a reboot of the 80’s video game “Frogger.” Help Karl Marx cross this busy intersection without being crushed under the literal wheels of capitalism! Anybody?) Reading left me feeling like there was a barrier holding a great burst of energy back, when we need to unleash that force! This kind of writing has a place in the world, but the world is literally on fire. There isn’t time for this to be disseminated via professors to those who can afford enough education to grasp it (I have a rusty bachelor’s degree, but had to continually pull myself back on track and refocus).
This should in no way discourage you from reading, by the way. I recommend the book. If you tend to struggle in the brambles and vines of theory, you might begin by reading the conclusion. Titled “On Hope and Solidarity,” and less than 10 pages long, starting there will offer you signposts to seek out in the main text, as well as encouragement to keep going.
“(B)uilding working-class power is an essential ingredient for liberatory movements today,” Reagan writes, and it’s true. Progressives can no longer assume solidarity as a given; it’s a mark of respect that must be earned. But our collective will be bigger and stronger when we are able to clearly and consciously locate the working class within it.
Heather Seggel is a writer living in Northern California.
From The Progressive Populist, September 15, 2021
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