“I love my black job,” tweeted Simone Biles, an American and Olympics star who is arguably the greatest gymnast in history.
The context of her pointed comment on social media is a response to what former US President Donald Trump said about black employment and immigrants.
"Coming from the border are millions and millions of people who happen to be taking Black jobs," Trump said at the National Association of Black Journalists convention in Chicago July 31. "They're taking the employment from Black people."
“Black jobs” have a history, one that Biles’ tweet casts light on, critically. Call it the national past of an unpaid part of the working class.
The forced migration of Black labor for chattel slavery in the US fueled the Industrial Revolution. That forced migration propelled the rise of racial capitalism as a world system, which continues to this day.
Income and wealth flowed away from—not to—the enslaved human beings from Africa. Their daily labor stateside was central to the birth and growth of the current global system.
The gymnastics achievements of Biles at the Paris 2024 Olympics refutes Trump’s definition of “Black jobs.” The millions of viewers around the world who have watched her powerful talent see that, and are free to interpret Biles’ critique.
This interpretation is global, due to social media that also captured former President Trump questioning the racial identity of Vice President Kamala Harris at the same NABJ convention. Did he go off script or not?
Meanwhile, Biles’ life of personal and professional success is due to her perseverance and persistence, and a strong support system. That began with her steadfast grandparents, Ronald and Nellie.
They adopted her and sister Adria after the duo lived in foster care. To say that the 27-year-old Biles has gone from rags to riches is an understatement.
Against that backdrop, migration from the Global South to the US today supplies the American labor market with workers. They range from doctors and nurses to gardeners and house cleaners, and the self-employed.
US foreign military intervention pushing people to migrate from their birthplaces in the Global South is a bipartisan feature of the American political duopoly. It facilitates the exploitation of migrant labor, key to profitability for private industry buying and selling goods and services.
Driving a wedge between sectors of the employee class benefits the employer class. Such division strengthens the system.
Back in a world of social media, an athlete of Biles’ stature is questioning a presidential candidate’s claims about employment and migrants, ethnicity and identity. She not he alone shapes that narrative.
Think about it and ask yourself this question. Is it a stretch to call Biles, despite her elite status, a working class hero?
Seth Sandronsky lives and works in Sacramento. He is a journalist and member of the Pacific Media Workers Guild. Email sethsandronsky@gmail.com.
From The Progressive Populist, September 1, 2024
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