Race vs. Class: Is the Market Colorblind?

Abstract

For over forty years, sociologists and social scientists have debated the nature of inequality. Indeed, going back to Karl Marx and his contemporaries, the debates on the significance of race and class have been perpetual. Marxists often contended that class superseded race, gender, and other divisions in importance, but instead, those divisions were utilized by capitalists to preserve economic advantage and better exploit the proletariats. Race theorists like Michael Omi and Howard Winant attempted to shift focus back on race, noting that race was still a fundamental aspect of our social organization and had significance on its own, beyond class.