Marxism Is Way Better Than Critical Race Theory — Vivek Chibber

On The Jacobin Show, Catalyst editor Vivek Chibber offers a left critique of critical race theory and explains the relationship between capitalism and racism.

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[discogodfather]

Adolph Reed understands it better than anyone. Race is a sub-class structure of Capital. The lines and the hierarchy can change and always changes. The point is to create a system in which there is always something that comes before addressing class and universal economic justice. Capitalism does not need racism to exist, it's simply the icing on the cake.

[djiniiiii]

Couldn't agree more

Just think of some of the common racist tropes in the US:
"Black on Black crime"
"Single mother Black households"
"Low IQ among Blacks and Hispanics"
"Jews controlling the World"
"Welfare queens" etc

Each one of these is directly linked to class and socio-economics

[nhajas]

You know, this makes me think of a series/playlist of things I can show to my Conservative friends that are conservatives because they bought the 'radical left' idea which is really not the left but the 'woke' liberals.

[Octoberfurst]

Very well said. It needs to be about class instead of race.Working class people of all colors need to unite against the capitalists. Breaking people down into identity politics does no good. All that does is split us apart.

[dumupad-da]

If 'Left' is understood as pro-equality, that does not entail the precedence of some forms of (in)equality over others. However, the power disparity between a poor and rich person of the same race or gender is infinitely bigger than that between persons of different races and genders with the same wealth, and that class inequality is the only type that is still inherent in the legal system and subject to obvious reforms - hence the constant quest to find ever more subtle idpol-related 'sins of the inner soul' to focus on instead.

[andytemerity]

I think this short extract does not do justice to the point Vivek Chibber is trying to make. And hence, there is an understandable misunderstanding in the comment
@Srijan Butola and others seem to suggest that multiple forms of oppression coexist. Or as multiple systems of production coexist. Hence, there are theories explaining different aspects of oppression. therefore each can work together to create a harmonious attack on a Oppressions with a capital O.
At the level of politics this is not compatible. Within Critical Race Theory it is possible to isolate scholars, older ones perhaps, like Angela Davis, who used a largely marxian analytic lens to understand the prison-industrial complex that sustains racial violence and discrimination.
However, critical race theorists who view race as emerging from a malaise of white supremacy, bigotry or the innate lack of empathy of a superior race, or even due to the lack of education or knowledge of certain dominant racial groups are the issue. This creates an issue at the level of politics. Firstly it hinders a coalitional politics that can be created using labour as the basis. it prevents actvists from imagining a politics which brings in the white poor. Second, it falsely assumes that racial equality will arise fighting for justice in courts, opposing police oppression and so on. These are very very important. but until these are yoked onto the fundamental and much larger concern of class politics these will become toothless.

However, it is also crucial to note that the formal structure of capital and its dynamics exist only as an immanent structure. It manifests in distinct ways in different parts of the world. In each, it subsumes and reshapes existing inequalities and structures of oppression. For long Marxists ignored this. instead choosing to focus on a 'pure' class politics which had little appeal to the racially marginalized and those oppressed by caste.
This is especially true in cases such as India, where the institutionalized left imagined an end to caste as it came to power in states like West Bengal.

But this cannot be taken to mean that these varied forms of oppressive systems exist like independent islands. This is the view that prevents any unified coalitional politics. If we just take caste this becomes clear. Caste does not emerge from a purity-pollution dialectic as Louis Dumont argued. there is a whole history of criticism to this argument, both by marxists and non marxists. A pollution based ritual model does not explain at all how castes became a rigid hierarchical structure that controls labour, bodies and mobility. For ritual hierarchy is extremely fluid. it is the economic and political hierarchy, control over productive resources that creates a rigid hierarchy (This is Dipankar Gupta's argument).
There is definitely a possibility of absorbing the insights of critical race theory within the larger rubric of Marxism.
But I would submit that the primary structure which needs to be attacked and dismantled is Capital. nothing else. That is the final and ultimate goal. There are no buts and ifs here.
If one finds locational and specific manifestations of class hierarchy, with the garb of biology, colour, ritual purity and so on, that needs to go too. But these manifestations disappearing will still not tackle class as such.
So the issue here is of targets. Is race one among many targets to attacking class or is race the only target for you?

[whiskeyshot]

Vivek mentions that CRT had a promising start as a way of understanding power, but that it morphed into some kind of post-modern study of racism being an abstract force that is everywhere. Does anyone know any examples of this change? Or could anyone else elaborate on how this change occurred?

[BrandonB...]

"It's not a Left anymore. I just don't know what to call it."

It's a club. Secret handshakes included.

[chagoriver]

next time use some sort of earphones. audio from laptop mic suck

[claborn]

I think the video title is a bit misleading. Marxism & critical race theory have two different goals. Marxism attempts to theorize the totality of capitalism, while the goal of critical race theory is to critique and change legal institutions (it grows out of critical legal studies). CRT is smaller in scope. I don't think it makes any sense to say one is "better" than the other when CRT can be a useful supplement to Marxism.

[deanbean]

The problem with critical race theory is that it adopts Marx's theories in the same way that capitalists adopted Darwin's theories (social Darwinism). Marx focused on the material world and his theories are based on the study of reality, that which is objective. To try and use his theories on subjective things such as the concept of race leads to toxic outcomes. This is the same way adopting Darwin's theories which are the study of reality, that which is objective, into subjective things like economics lead to toxic outcomes

[hinahanta]

Great video.
You know, I started out Marxist but got burnt out in the mid 2000s by all the modern this race good vs this race bad that started popping up.
I was recently told by a person on a Marxist FB group that they 'hate whites and wish all whites gone from the earth'.
From there a rather stern but civil discussion ensued.
The end result was me being muted and an interesting conversation with the admin.
We have reinvented what racism is and how it is defined. We use a definition that did not even exist when Marx was putting his ideas in writing.
Marxism in my opinion has been twisted and turned into one giant identity politics word game. We are just repeating historical mistakes because of this new younger reactionary version of Marxism is now the dominant form.
I am a non Marxist Communist mainly because I am tired of being told to shut up because of my skin color from people barely half my age.
By the way, the two guys did not get muted because no matter how disgusting the comment is, there is bo such thing as racism to a white.

[scottmcloughlin]

Listen to the last 5 minutes. USA's so-called "Left" is not "Left" at all. That's the most important conclusion everyone must understand.

[Maya-diwg]

Dr. Victoria Dooley, who advocates for M4A- She talks about the importance of material solutions and universal programs. And also talks about the importance of combating things like implicit bias in the medical field. Because oppression and racial bias hurt patients directly. One doesn't cancel out the other.
But I think there is also frustration when corporate politicians/media pretend as if they do. Because bias training doesn't break their bottom line.

[KorAnos]

The idea that CRT, a framework for understanding how race and racism have shaped America's legal system, is mutually exclusive from Marxism is just bizarre.

[jefftist]

Race specific vs Race sensitive. 3:45 -

[GaminHasard]

The PMC’s Love talk about race and not about class.

[DinoCism]

"It's being deployed to rip apart friends, neighbours and families..."

You mean like racism? Cause that sounds a lot like racism lol.

[mikemurillo]

Yes! And I’ve been saying this for years to my “progressive” friends in SF and LA. You can’t enact actual change until you create a large enough coalition and you can’t create a coalition if you’re constantly tell people that they don’t belong in your group.

[RobinHerzig]

Rewriting textbooks is necessary, and so is who + how it's done. Regional acceptance likely to be a problem. Wish Howard Zinn was around.