Race, Class, and the Economics of Identity: A Theory of Racism

O]ne substantial factor [for the growing inequality of income and wealth] seems to be unstated understanding by the mass of whites that they will accept large disparities in economic opportunity to other whites as long as they have a priority over blacks and other people of color for access to those opportunities. ... [There are] several instances in American history when whites have acquisced in the rights of blacks in order to further some other interest. One might well ask " what do the masses of working class and poor whites gain from this continued sacrifice of black rights that justifies their acquiescence, when so often the policies limit their opportunities as well as those of blacks? " Even those whites who lack wealth and power are substained in their sense of racial superiority by policy decisions that sacrifice black rights. The subordination of blacks seems to reassure whites of an unspoken but no less certain property right in their " whiteness. " This right is recognized and upheld by courts and the society like all property rights under a government created and sustained primarily for that purpose. One way of viewing the Supreme Court's employment discrimination decisions is as a judicial reassurance that the effort to eliminate racial discrimination will not be allowed to infringe on vested rights and expectations of innocent whites, defined as those whites not caught redhanded with smoking guns evidencing their participation in blatant, invidious discrimination.