Race or Class?

This is the question that is often asked, and the debate is on which is more important - and which needs to be focused on in pursuit of social justice for all? An increasing number of Americans are convinced that race and racism are all but gone, and should no longer be a factor when we formulate our social policies. At the same time they believe that class inequality is the new frontier and the only one worth examining and remedying.

I say that the two are inseparable, and there is most often a direct link of race to the class one is a part of. Is racism as egregious as it was during slavery and the sharecropping Jim Crow era in the south and the north? Certainly not, but race is still the kindling that begins the process towards inadequate health care, poor housing, inferior educational opportunities, discriminatory charging and prison sentencing, police profiling and excessive force, joblessness and a host of other ills. These are usually what determines the class of those affected, and although remedying class inequities are important, for a significant part of the population, race and racism should, and must be dealt with first.

If and when we muster the will and commitment to focus on ending racism as we know it, we will begin to see the uplifting of those classes that have been negatively impacted by systemic racism. This will benefit all of us who make up American society. We cannot have one without the other.