Inequality, a growing situation for most blacks, is not only influenced by racism, but is primarily caused by structural and economic forces as a result of class. Today’s inequality, chiefly the result of structural and economic forces, has been paved through a history of racial discrimination creating badly paid and poorly educated blacks. The steady decline of racism during the de-industrialization period, led to a growing success of the black middle class and an increase of poverty in the black lower classes. The growing success of the black middle class resulted in relocation from the inner cities to the suburbs unintentionally resulting in worse living conditions for the black lower classes. In order to understand the changing patterns of racism, it is imperative to look at past black living conditions in America. During the Pre-Industrial period, the economics directly caused a paternal type of racial exclusion. Between 1659 and 1890, most blacks worked on farms. Even after slavery, during the reconstruction period between 1870 and 1890, black people were still needed in the south for agricultural labor. According to Wilson, the white south made sure that the black worker during this time had no option but agricultural work. By creating racial exclusion, work options for blacks became limited. This Marxist view proved that capitalism promoted racism in interest of profit. Despite the large amount of segregation, the racism towards the blacks was mostly paternalistic, or non-hostile. The whites believed that blacks lacked intelligence and thus their racial exclusion seemed to be justified. In the white’s minds, hostility towards blacks was unnecessary because the blacks were non-threatening and the economy depended on them, until the Industrial Period. (Stokes)The Industrial Period changed racism from paternalistic to antagonistic, because of the competition of jobs between two groups with different wage l...
