The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1931-02-24
BY B. d. AMIs.

ME are in receipt Of an anonymous letter writ
" ten by a backward 100 per cent arrogant
Yankee. This true disciple of white superior
ity' has attended our forums in Kansas City
where the Negro question has been discussed at
length. He takes issue with our fight for equal
rights for the Negro, raising in a barbarous and
slanderous manner two questions. ID What have
the Negroes contributed to civilization; they have
not kept pace with the white people, they are
inferior; % that the present social SYSTEM
capitalist is playing the niger off against the
white worker, but that could be changed under
the social system
This viewpoint is part of the boss poison that
has perneated large sections of the working
class. 1t has only single purpose: to take
away the minds Of the toiling masses from their
Wretched economic conditions and enslavement,
and in this way to keep them from struggling
against them. The natural differences between
people are magnified, distorted and emphasized
beyond all measure by the white ruling class in
order to cover up the really fundamental. i'm
portant and decisive differences between those
who labor and those who live the surplus
labor of the toilng masses.
The boss ruling class has nothing in common
with the toiling masses, except to reap more and
larger profits from their labor. This can only
be accomplished with the working class divided
and fighting among themselves instead Of unit
ing and fighting against their common enemy,
the capitalist class The latter class lives on
the surplus labor of all toilers regardless OF
natural differences. This is best illustrated by
chattel slavery in the United States prior to the
Civil War The plantation owners lived on the
surplus labor Of the slaves built large fortunes,
and mere few kept millions under subsection.
Il, the slave owner, am of superior race.
YOU the slave. are of an inferior race" Thus
the slave owner maintained. In fact. labor was
beneath the dignity OF the slave owner and
worthy only of the slave. Even today, in the
South, certain jobs are known as jobs for
blacks: the whites refuse to accept such work.
because of severe suffering during the present
hard times, many whites have willingly ac-
cepted the jobs of black workers. They have
forgotten about their dignity) Thus see that
the idea of race superiority and inferiority has
its roots in and expresses the economic class
relations of slave and slaveowner, whether it be
chattel Or wage slavery.
Such narrow-minded conception is Grass g-
norance 1t is feudal arrogance. 1t prevents the
growth of CONSEQUENCES of the common and i'm
mediate interests of the toiling people.
It is not so-caled racial characteristics but
primarily the material conditions of his life
that determine the development OF man. 1T
is not the absolute fertility of the soil but the
multifariousness Of its natural products which
constitutes the natural foundation Of the social
division of labor, and by changing the natural
conditions Of his environment. spurs man on to
multiply his own needs, capacities. means of
labor, and methods of labor" Capital, p. 557,
Mark
The capitalist class does not only pit the
Negro workers against the white workers, but
the native Americans against the foreign born,
the Jew against the Gentle the Catholic against
the Protestant, the Irish against the Italian etc.
This Is done to continue the exploitation Of the