Racecraft: The Soul of Inequality in American Life

An interesting discussion between Barbara Fields and Coates on Racecraft: The Soul of Inequality in American Life. In a provocative series of chapters by the Fields sisters, they compellingly argue that racism created race and compare the reproducing ideology of racism and race to belief in witchcraft in European and African contexts. Listening to this conversation and reading the book, I couldn't help but remember conversations with friends on these topics, particularly the ways in which our "folk conventions" of race reappear in science, despite the lack of any scientific basis for race as a valid concept of biology. From genetics to blood, we continue to reaffirm the notion of race as valid or appropriate in medicine, diagnosis, blood donations, and even pseudoscience on innate differences physical styles, athleticism and intelligence. 

A recent conversation with a friend of mine was an important moment of recognizing how so many people from all backgrounds continue to think of blood, race, and ethnicity as distinct races which can be grouped and differentiated from each other, a notion which quickly falls apart in cases such as sickle cell or ideas about which diseases black people are supposed to have. I was reminded of something Adolph Reed wrote about genetics and epigenetics, which seems like it could easily lead to another attempt to use genes and recent trends in science to rehash previous discourse of alleged racial and culture sources  as the main culprits for inequality. Sometimes it feels as if we are trapped in the Victorian era notions of class and inequality, occasionally mixing up the terminology of race, class, and genes.

Another issue touched upon in the book and this lecture is the multiracial movement, which Fields convincingly argues is multiracist and biracist, since its premised on notions of distinct, "pure" races. Referring to one estimate that found 24% of "whites" on the 1970 US census had "black" ancestors, it becomes quite clear how notions of "pure" races is a myth, yet the multiracial movement is pushing forward this agenda. This rears its ugly head in moments like claims of "authentic racial identity," as mentioned by the authors, which cannot exist when race is the product of racism, and there is huge internal diversity and other causal factors for so-called "black culture," such as racism and Jim Crow leading to some unique characteristics which appear among Afro-Americans, like "Black English." Arguing against ideas of African retention, the sisters suggest the main factor, racism and segregation, often led to these distinctive characteristics of "black culture," which has always been highly flexible evolving. 

Unfortunately, the influence of Durkheim, Pritchards, DuBois and Appiah is not explored as fully as in the text. The importance of witchcraft and understanding how, historically, Europeans of the not so recent past, and African societies of yesterday and today, can continue to believe in witches in a rational manner, is applicable to racecraft or racism and the creation of race, since both racecraft and witchcraft use similar invisible ontology. The analogy may not be as perfect as the authors wish, yet I found it an incredibly useful way to look at racism in the US context, lent further credence by the fact that both are unfounded by notions by science yet continue to operate in their respective societies. 

In spite of similarities to witchcraft and certain common processes of human social and religious thought, racecraft and racism is not an inevitable fact of human life. The text explains quite succinctly how racism evolved within particular social and economic conditions, a process taking the reader back to 17th century Virginia and its gradual development of slavery. Subsequently, notions of race and racism were still not grounded in "science" until the 19th century, despite Jefferson's fame as the US's first "racial pundit." Anyway, it is mistaken to blame "race" as the cause of slavery, when it was really racism and the need for labor that led to notions of race and perpetual servitude, not some psychological need to identify Africans as an inferior peoples on an ideology which only arose after decades of slavery and indentured labor. This is the weakness pounced upon by Fields in much of the scholarship on race among historians and sociologists, which often presupposes race before racism/racecraft. Thus, "race" is blamed for Jim Crow or a white police officer shooting a black police officer, instead of racism. It can be traced back to slavery and the circular logic or reasoning of some scholars who argue race led to slavery or racism.

Elucidating ideology as something not inherited like heirlooms but a constant process of reinvention, the idea of racism or racecraft persists, much to the detriment of addressing deeper inequality, as addressed in the final chapters of Racecraft. Lamentably, there are not enough remedies or prescriptions for how to uproot racecraft in US society, but the book offers some insight on how racism functions and infiltrates science, politics, and, dare I say it, African-American Studies and identity politics. Conflating "race," a product of racecraft, with "culture" and immutable or essentialized groups inhibits recognition of broader systemic issues in the face of austerity and declining real wages for all working-class and poor people. Although certainly not advocating for colorblindness, one can easily draw from left-leaning ideologies or programs as one avenue of redress, consistent with Verso Books.