Corinna Contreras
Sociology 185 D
November 19, 2009
Unfettered Exploitation
When we look around today without examining the social structures inherent in
contemporary American culture, it may seem easy to think one lives in freedom. Don’t we have
the same opportunities? For isn’t that what we preach to our children? But then if that is so why
do we see such disparities among different groups of people? Cox in his examination of
American race relations and McClintock’s investigation of the female in relation to the nation
shed light on the long weight of historical processes that have limited access to blacks (and other
racialized groups as well as women to full political, social, economic, and cultural power that
Race Exploitation
According to the perspective taken by Cox, race exploitation follows in synch with the
development of capitalism, whereby the convenience of racial prejudice permits one group to
master another; the conquest of the New World by Europeans (1493-1494, as stated by Cox) set
the stage for new or as Cox refers to it, “modern” race relations (331). Inherent in this modern
racialized system, a complete repeal of human rights for the “Other” permitted the
conquistadores the “natural” right to subjugate peoples of “inferior” ancestry and society to toil
the land for resource extraction. The key to race exploitation is therefore resource exploitation or
by any other name, capitalism. Examining the agendas of powerful European nations such as
Spain and Portugal illustrate the lust for exploration; this exploration however took shape under
the whip of a bourgeoning economic order. The constant quest of power meant in those times as
well as it does today (to some extent) unhindered consumption of resource whether that resource
took the shape of new territory, new mineral wealth or the enslavement of peoples. These
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elements of consumption find unity under the conquest of the New World. The growing structure
Capitalism perpetuates race exploitation. The drive for increased profits always edifies
one group while subjugating another. The difference between the two follows pure
phantasmagoria that do not naturally manifest unless created by a dominate ideology; the masters
race becomes a favored and mighty tool. The dominate group, in this case a foreign people, a
European people, with the aid of superior military technologies and infectious disease, devised
methods to limit socio-political power (and in doing so, cultural assimilation) of the
“conquested” (330). Race as a tool for creating division serves capitalists interests more so than
other devised methods for it demarks social power therefore leaving one or more racialized
groups beneath another, chained into place by the “master race.” This “practical exploitative
relationship” permits wealth accumulation for one group at the expense of another thus forming
class relations that mirror race relations. Assimilation equates with acceptance of white customs,
the release of “backward” ancestry, and with the rejection of one culture for a more progressed
culture, the culture of the white master. And it is within this “formula” for assimilation that a
Cruel Paradox
To open one’s eyes and view the world as seen by the racialized means to acknowledge a
position in society that fits below white culture. The building one lives in illustrates it. The
school one attends illustrates it. The job one has or does not have illustrates it. The look one
receives from the “master” illustrates it. Cox questions the notion of assimilation. What does it
mean for the exploited to assimilate? He states, “the social tendency toward assimilation is an
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American cultural trait” (545). This observation reveals the pervasive racism in American culture
today. Racialized levels of cultural acceptance are what Cox tries to get at in his reading of
examination of assimilation is that assimilation never moves down the racial hierarchy; instead
those characterized by their lower racial traits strive towards vertical assimilation or in other
words, assimilation towards an acceptance of white culture and by white culture. Here rests the
paradox of blacks and other racially “inferior” peoples. American society means white society
therefore to assimilate is to adopt the culture, the lifestyle of white society. It means a rejection
of what makes one different from the dominate culture, the rejection of self. In rejection of self
one must acknowledge her own inferiority and willfully submit to the power of the dominate
culture.
Cox reads solidarity among blacks as “defensive and tentative only” as it exists only in
opposition to a white ruling class that has thus far been successful in “opposing their
assimilation” (545). This limited solidarity exists only so long as white opposition to assimilation
exists; black assimilation aims to reach the upper levels of society dominated by white power,
however, opposition to this assimilation from whites forces blacks into a solidarity shaped solely
solidarity only in relation to white opposition sheds light on the pervasive racism of American
culture whereby group assimilation is the want of white power. White culture holds economic,
political, social, and cultural power therefore if a racialized person aims to partake in exercising
economic, political, social, and cultural power, he must assimilate into white culture. At the same
time, the attainment of these elements of power are opposed in various ways by whites in that
avenues for social progress limit access to non-whites. In summation, the closer one gets towards
against another through mob action for the purpose of suppressing either some tendency in the
latter to rise from an accommodated position of subordination or for subjugating them further to
some lower social status. It is a special form…directed against a whole people or political class.”
---Cox (549)
individuals as a way to attack the group as a whole that they represent (549). The use of lynching
is a systemic way in which whites can apply de facto power of “justice” upon blacks they deem
as progressing from their socially accepted status in society; lynching, unopposed by local law
thus serves to control the assimilation of blacks into white society by reminding blacks of their
place, a place below that of white, a place subject to the whims of white power.
Marriage restrictions are simply another method of opposing assimilation. When made
law whether de facto or de jure, marriage restrictions offer in addition to lynching, more
symbolic representations of power relations among one group and another. The restriction of one
race to union with another illuminates a story drenched in racial tones. As a method of white
control, limiting the access of blacks to white society by inhibiting black-white coalitions under
marriage serves as another tool for a continued demarcation between a lower race and a higher
race thus serving to not only restrict assimilation but also to perpetuate strong white opposition
within an institutional frame that further legitimizes white power and black inferiority.
The Woman
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As seen by McClintock, the woman has been invested with the symbolic nature of the
nation while the male holds the true power of the nation. She states “ since the subordination of
woman to man and child to adult was deemed a natural fact, hierarchies within the nation could
Women thus are restricted from accessing power although the ways in which they are limited
deviate slightly from that of “othered” racial groups. As a ‘natural’ subordinate women are
placed below men and experience power only in relation to men. The nation is made by men and
thus power to control its agency is given to men; this has been the pervasive historical
relationship between women, men, and the nation where gender serves as a limiting factor in
attaining political power. In accordance with blacks, women are denied access to state power and
are cast into a domestic space created by an opposition to complete assimilation with the power
Cox and McClintock discuss the restrictions imposed on discriminated groups by the
dominate white male power in which access to national resources are granted freely to white
males while blacks and women are placed below access level. The race relations and gender
relations illustrate the discrimination inherent in the nation by examining the way in which the
nation functions to restrict the assimilation of one group into a status of power and questions the
Works Cited
Cox, Oliver C. Caste, Class, & Race: A Study in Social Dynamics. Doubleday, 1948.
McClintock, Anne. “No Longer in a Future Heaven:” Nationalism, Gender, and Race,” from
Becoming National. Pp. 260-284.