Just two weeks ago, in Needham, MA, when 500 predominantly white Coca Cola workers went on strike, the corporation responded by hiring a predominantly black strike-breaking force. Techniques of divide and conquer are used by large-scale employers across the globe, exacerbating existing racial divisions to ensure a divided workforce. By exploiting the racial differences between various groups, owners can often prevent worker solidarity, limiting the effectiveness of labor strikes and the power of collective bargaining. Throughout history, racism has been a highly effective tool in diverting collective anger from the source of economic inequalities and funneling it toward a convenient scapegoat. If Lakin is to claim that capitalism is developing in a direction such that racial differences will no longer be exploited, he needs to show that racial antagonism will no longer be useful to the system, or why the system would cease to take advantage of such divisions.
Racial divisions are, at the very least, situations worth exploiting in the quest for profit.
Even if the progressive programs that Lakin mentions were to be instituted into a capitalist framework, leveling the economic playing field substantially, one should not expect that racial divisions would fall away. Inc. You may not reproduce this material in any form without the permission of The Brown Daily Herald. Contact The Herald if you have any comments or suggestions.