Toward a Theory of Super-Exploitation: The Subproletariat, Harold “Hal” Baron, and the Crisis of the Political Economy of Black Labor

Abstract

This article argues that the African American working class can be conceptualized as a subproletariat: a subsection of the working class generally restricted to unstable, unskilled, low-wage, non-union, and “dirty” labor. The restructuring of capital during various periods in the U.S. history always strategically positioned the vast majority of Black people in subproletarian labor. Under the current crisis in the political economy of Black labor, uneven development and economic dislocation have deepened the lack of stable, skilled, living wage jobs in poor Black regions of the USA. This article expands on the earlier work of Joe Trotter and Harold “Hal” Baron to build a framework to understand this phenomenon. This paper proposes that Black labor and the Black working class provide the most succinct starting points to understanding the complexities of contemporary forms of anti-Black racial oppression.