Capitalism and Black Oppression

Mr. Carson’s point about black women oppression and capitalism intrigued me the most. Aunt Jemima, as Carson said, epitomizes the antebellum role of serving white people. She is depicted as a happy go lucky servant who is content with her occupation. I believe Aunt Jemima helps connect the oppression of black women, and black people in general, to capitalism.

Thinking about the history and start of the economic oppression blacks faced, I looked at the works of Karl Marx. According to the Marxist understanding of economics, labor is a market commodity based upon the extraction of surplus value from proletariats. The capitalists (upper class of society) exploit the labor of the working class who helplessly abide by such working conditions. Before continuing, one important point to understand is that all humans are fundamentally driven by self interest, and (in most cases) humans make decisions, weighed against the next best alternative, that maximizes personal benefit. Understanding that, when we consider a white employer, we must assume it is reasonable for them to make decisions that maximize their personal financial benefits, which leads to lowering labor costs. Now, white employees who are coping with the exploitation of their labor also want to maximize personal benefit, which led to the formation of labor unions in the 19th century that fought for greater financial advantages. Now, the employer must decide his next move to maximize his benefits: they either accept the deals offered by the labor unions, or they will consider an alternative that is better. In this case, there is a better alternative: black labor. Black people, at that time, had to either accept work for a lower wage than whites, or accept the alternative of being unemployed, so they accepted the work. I believe Aunt Jemima enforces the sentiment that many blacks accepted their unfair wages due to the lack of a better alternative. And thus marks the beginning of the economic disparity between blacks and whites, which I think plays a critical role in the comparatively worse medical conditions African American women face today.

Although the oppression black women face in medical environments is not only financial, I do believe focusing on closing the racial economic gap would greatly ameliorate the issue.