For too long now, people living in the United States have spoken about issues of race without properly examining exactly what it is that we are talking about. We look at the current situation that faces us, look at historic racism and get stuck. We stay within the trap of race while trying to create broad-based solutions to the problems that face us. But maybe that is not it; maybe there is something else that should be done. In that, the difficulty with race is our dual need to talk about it and get over it; understanding must flourish that race is a social construct that must be disposed of eventually, but we cannot ignore the fact that we live in a society constructed by race. We need to phase 'race' out of our discussions of state, family, education and most notably economics. Instead we must carefully analyze the systems we have in place, again most notably economics, in order to properly understand their current structures so they can be radically transformed to allow us to move towards equality.

In Should We Conserve the Notion of Race?, David E. McClean struggles with that question. His focus in the article is very linguistic-based. He notes the growth in scientific knowledge regarding the lack of differences in what had previously been divided as races. In this argument he says, "as intimated, race has far more to do with culture and politics than with natural science, and culture and politics are largely contextual affairs."[1] Without clearly stating what these issues of culture and politics are, and without dissecting how they affect people, McClean moves towards ignoring discussion of race all together, claiming instead that it does not exist. Especially by looking back on the arguments that DuBois made at the beginning of the 20^th century, McClean says that discussion of race side steps the issues that are at hand, which are his nebulous ideas of culture and politics.

In Pragmatism and Race, Paul C. Taylor moves forward McClean's thinking on this proper placement of our discussion of race. Rather than simply dismiss the language, as McClean would hope for us to do, Taylor insists that we properly identify what our race language truly means. Taylor argues that meanings within race language evolve over time, and it is important to maintain that language because it offers us many tools in understanding the world around us. Specifically for Taylor it identifies four ways to comprehend our current situation: as a way to understand human bodies and bloodlines, the dualism between self-identification and social-ascription, the distribution of social goods, and finally this language gives us greater ability to talk about other sociological strata, like ethnicities and national origins.[2] While Taylor accepts that race is an important subject that needs to remain in our discourse, at least temporarily, he does say that it has changed from the narrowly focused ideas it existed throughout our common history. He does not however attempt to tell us how race is lived and actualized today.

Looking at these philosophers, we find ourselves in a category mistake, as Gilbert Ryle would say. Linguistically, we have trapped far too much in what we has been termed race. Rather, we must conjecture that most of what we use race language on today are, in fact, issues that arise from economics. Temporarily putting aside the very real differences that exist today between cultures and customs, race was polarized most to further certain economic gains. The capitalist economy exists on the presumption of equalities in economic opportunities. African-Americans entered the economic system with measured inequalities. Coming out of slavery, African-Americans were already depressed economically, as they were previously controlled by the metaphoric 'invisible hands' rather than controlling. Added to that was the systematic racism that pervaded the nation at the time; not only were opportunities shut off for basic economic reasons, but even when means were available hatred still stood in the way. As years brought us further from the United States' chattel slavery past, systematic racism has been crushed again and again leveling few economic obstacles built solely upon a foundation of racial hatred. This doesn't level the playing field. Our current situation has little left for African-Americans to overcome, other than their oppressed common history (which I must say is a great deal). It is as though now there are no more speed bumps in the dash towards economic safety, yet African-Americans must recover from the first section of the dash they ran through quicksand.

This then assumes an end to American racism as the Civil Rights and Black Power movements of the United States strove for, but the maintenance of classism. We can come to this assumption by going back to the race-language of the United States. "Acting Black" or "acting white" are terms used in describing a combination of economic and educational (here understood as a tool within an economic system) abilities. African-Americans can be criticized for "acting white" because either their attire or their language (or likely a combination) fit into the historic model of United States capitalism: business suits and a polished vernacular. Conversely for whites, "acting black" and "being ghetto" are synonymous. These phrases are used when people follow customs that originated from economic struggles: baggy pants from prisons (a institution that punishes those who work outside the accepted economy) or alternative dialects that originate from poor schooling.

In knowing this we must reframe our thoughts, our hopes and our programs, looking at our current system and forward to an equitable democratic society, where needs are met and dignity is maintained. We have spent too long assuming the problems we face today are based solely on race, or with race being a major factor. The time for race as a major factor in our issues has come to pass, being subsumed by larger forces. Economics has taken from all sorts of group-directed hatred, to produce the more powerful oppressor in classism. Now that we better understand the relationship of race and class, and consequently our present situation, there are two programs we can undertake in both mending the immediate issues that affect marginalized people today, but also creating counter-institutions that will replace the existing system, which for so long has held people oppressed: changing the paradigms of housing and education.

First we can revolutionize the model of housing. Moving towards a more economically just society community ownership of property will become the norm. In this community ownership it will be important to remain mindful of the means that are available to certain people based on their historic, racially based economic situation. Therefore cooperative ownership must continue to recognize these differences while maintaining equitable space to call 'home.' We all can join this work through organizations like Fordham Bedford Housing Corporation. This non-profit housing corporation is moving out of the current housing paradigm, while utilizing the resources that do exist. They work to provide space that is easy to declare 'home' for fair prices to people of the Northwest Bronx who are consistently shut out of similar apartments due to a lack of economic resources. Building up these community organizations and bringing the model to different communities is important work that needs to be done.

Moreover, we can work at radically altering the educational system. With beautiful exceptions, our current educational system only works to prepare young people to enter our current economic system and ignores their individual differences and capabilities. It ignores the desire of some to exist out of this obsolete economic system and the beautiful things that come from alternatives. We can work with community groups that are already in the school, tutoring and providing basic assistance, and create alternative curriculums that anticipate the paradigm shift. We can look at cultural movements that come out of these economically marginalized communities, which also have strands that produce revolutionary thought, and use these as teaching tools. Bringing Hip-Hop into urban public schools to offer an empowering education of self-realization can accomplish these goals. In after-school programs, we can provide a truer education to those who are have become irrelevant to the United States' capitalist economy.

It is these programs, and others like them, which we can join to move the discussion of race in the right direction. We have fallen too long into the paradigm that marginalized classes exist along racial lines, and we have yet to find the solution to that problem. The solution has been simple all along. It's not race but a historically racially based economic system that marginalizes people. We can work on these things to both mend the problems we face today coming from our common history, and with a proper understanding of what our current situation is, move out of this paradigm into a more equitable democratic society.

Works Cited

McClean, David. "Should We Conserve the Notion of Race." Pragmatism and the Problem of Race. Ed. Bill E. Lawson and Donald F. Koch. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 2004. 142-161.

[1] David McClean, "Should We Conserve the Notion of Race?" " Pragmatism and the Problem of Race (Bloomington; Indiana University Press, 2004) 142.

[2] Paul C. Taylor, "Pragmatism and Race" Pragmatism and the Problem of Race (Bloomington; Indiana University Press, 2004) 169-170.