• Public

  • Public
  • Network
  • Groups
  • Featured
  • Popular
  • People

Du Bois (1935) determined that racial capitalism requires a "psychology of caste" (p. 695) in which White workers align themselves politically and psychologi- cally with the ruling class of White elites who exploit them, not with the workers of color with whom they share many material interests. This psychology of caste is apparent in the aspirations of White workers who, Du Bois noted, often yearn not for an end to the system of economic exploitation but for a chance to "join the class of exploiters ... to become capitalists" (pp. 17- 18). Crucially, as long as White workers think of them- selves primarily as Whites and not workers, the laboring classes lack the solidarity necessary to effectively