The class basis of racialisation: The missing link in neo-Marxist analysis of racism

Abstract

Racialisation is a Marxist concept that has been utilised to understand racism patterns and reproduction in Western societies for more than three decades. In Marxist parlance, racialisation is the ideological process through which the state racialised a section of the population (ethnic minorities) for political purposes. The centrality of the state in racialisation discourse has inhibited the class basis that underpins racialisation. This article articulates the class analysis of racialisation, positing that racialisation stems from racism ideology that the Western ruling class utilised to divide the people along the ethnic line as a means of preserving and maintaining ruling class influence and prestige in society and protecting the capitalist system from being challenged by the unity of the people along the class line. Racialisation is utilised to reproduce racism, using media, laws, regulations and institutional practices to entrench division and disunity in society and preserve their control system under capitalism. In discussing the future of racism, this article critiques the current anti-racism campaign/movement founded and rooted in race discourse and race consciousness and argues that a shift from race consciousness to racialised consciousness is pivotal towards deconstruction and eradicating all vestiges of racism in the global society. The article concludes that racialised consciousness would act as a political unifier in anti-racism campaigns and connects the struggles of Black working and middle class with that of the White working and middle class in terms of collaboration and solidarity, to collectively challenge the capitalist system that is responsible for oppression, inequality and racism on class lines.