Racism In class societies, any tactic will be used to divide masses and turn them against one another. “The logic of ‘race as a social construct,'” wrote historian Theodore W. Allen, “must be tightened and the focus sharpen…the ‘white race’ must be understood, not simply as a social construct, bust as a ruling class social control formation.” As Allen’s research confirms, is impossible to understand the history of capitalism in the U.S. without understanding the history of racism, not only to justify slavery and create divisions between class solidarity, but also its role in the “opening” of the frontier to capitalists, and waging wars of economic important in Mexico, Cuba, and across the globe. The Knights of Labor and the American Federation of Labor (AFL) were the two largest unions in the country by 1892, and both were a mixed bag when it came to organizing and actively including black workers. The Knights of Labor, for example, had integrated assemblies in the north and segregated assemblies in the south. Up to and during the general strike, the New Orleans elite tried repeatedly to divide white and black workers using racist appeals.~ https://oaklandsocialist.com/2017/04/17/the-new-orleans-general-strike-of-1892/
"I can hire one half of the working class to kill the other half" - Jay Gould (American Railroad Developer) 19th C
