How is racism used by the ruling class?
The capitalists primary purpose in enforcing racist discrimination is to retain political power. But racism also nets the capitalists billions in additional profits each year through the direct lowering of the wages of black workers, and through the indirect lowering of the wages of white workers, who are weakened in their resistance by divisions within the working class. The more intense the local racism, the lower the wages for all workers in that area, white as well as black. These lower wages mean super-profits for the capitalists. By multiplying the difference between the average income of white and non-white workers by the number of non-white workers in the U.S. private sector, we find that capitalist reap a total of $200 billion in super-profits. Slightly more than half of that total comes from the underpayment of black workers alone. The balance comes from Latin, Asian and Native American workers. This does not include the superprofits that result from the downward pressure of
