The catastrophic effects of COVID-19 are now well established, and its destruction has not kept to one domain.
With now more than 1 million deaths nationwide, COVID-19 has also ravaged non-white populations in a much more severe manner. Positivity and death rates are especially higher in black populations. This can be attributed to economic disparities, but also to racial discrimination within the healthcare system, which is fueled by capitalist interests and a lack of consciousness for non-white tragedies, destruction, and violence. Both Karl Marx’s and W.E.B Du Bois’ theories are perfectly apt in aiding society to contextualize and further understand the mediums by which such inequality can originate from.
During the pandemic, African American communities have deteriorated due to an economic division along the color line. In, “The Black Plague,” the author highlights that there is a substantial concentration of African Americans in low-wage jobs, which have now been classified as ‘essential.’ These low-wage jobs are a direct consequence of the economic hardship which African Americans have uniquely been subjected to. The article uncovers that such work environments did not provide proper measures to combat COVID-19, nor did they offer leaves of absence for workers displaying symptoms. Furthermore, former vice-president Mike Pence insisted that he needed these workers to, “show up and do your job,” and contribute to the ‘critical infrastructure’ of the United States.
Unfortunately, low-wage African American workers have no choice but to continue to work in order to survive and afford their sustenance. And so, they are compelled to work in dangerous conditions, while their bosses and elite supervisors gaze from a cocoon of security. Marx would say that this is exploitation, in which labor produces value for capitalists. This extraction of labor and resources from workers, with no regard for their well-being, is driven by what Marx would deem, “egotistical calculation,” for the production of profit. The elite capitalists cannot survive without the labor of the low-wage African Americans, and therefore are dehumanizing the workers themselves. Marx notes that such behavior is, “compelled by the competitive struggle among capitalists.”
Similarly, Du Bois would view this deterioration of the African American community as a direct cause, but simultaneously a consequence of their harsh economic conditions. He would say that these events are rooted in the failure to redistribute wealth to the poor. He states that, “the wealth of the ruling class does not belong to them entirely, but it is a product of the work and striving of the great million.” This is an exceptional point, because it discloses the lack of consciousness and dehumanization that is exuded by the capitalists’ incessant pleas for the low-wage laborers to keep working. The African American workers should be additionally compensated for continuing to create profit for the capitalists during a pandemic, and because they are not, this automatically hinders any of them from improving their economic condition.
Marx’s exploitation and egotistical calculation is clearly discerned in this scheme, and Du Bois would certainly agree. Du Bois asserted that there was a loophole in preventing the working class from becoming more empowered: the exploitation of the darker peoples. By exploiting the low-wage laborers, companies and capitalists can continue to suppress the potential economic power that the African American’s have, especially during a pandemic where they are most vulnerable. Therefore, both Marx and Du Bois would concur that the pandemic has exacerbated conditions in which the capitalist white class can exploit and dehumanize low-wage workers for their own economic interests. By subjecting workers to brutal conditions, Marx and Du Bois agree that white civilization is kept upright.
Even before the pandemic, racially-motivated oppression was ignored amongst capitalists. And now during the pandemic, capitalists continue to turn a blind eye to these inequalities. Zophia Edwards keenly notes that analyses of the global political economy are, “race neutral or willfully indifferent to the persistent racial pattern of global inequalities…and ignore the ongoing racial logics of oppression embedded therein.” Edwards further writes about how capitalism could not occur without categorization among racial lines, imperialism, and slavery.
And yet today, we still see that racial patterns and the legacy of slavery remain forgotten and excluded from economic conversations. Du Bois would say that with COVID-19, we may be viewing the, “real soul of white culture,” in which modern humanity has gone, and instead is replaced with barbarism and cruelty.
One of the key components of the soul of white culture is to purposefully neglect the experiences and tragedies of the black folk in order to create a lack of consciousness for it. If no one is taught about it, no one will remember it: it will simply be erased from history. Du Bois would say that the current COVID-19 situation has done exactly this for non-white communities, especially African American communities, because capitalists seem to ignore their well-being. This lack of consciousness directly relates to a lack of empathy, except that white people are not shy to admit they carry such a belief. Du Bois says that this lack of empathy is exemplified by the white’s hypothesis of inferiority, in which white people question why black people still love life despite their conditions. This is exact proof that the white people are aware of the injustice and inequality present in the lives of black people, yet they willfully choose to ignore it. This is precisely what is occurring now, and what the article deems is indifference.
Marx would view this issue a bit differently than Du Bois. Instead of solely focusing on a lack of consciousness and empathy toward the African Americans, he would focus on the suppression of racism. The idea that this suppression of racist and exploitative ideologies by capitalists is what subjugates the non-white struggle explicitly proves Marx’s idea that indeed they are, “slaves of the bourgeoisie class.” And because they are viewed as slaves, not human workers, the capitalists feel entitled and can justify the subsequent treatment and willful ignorance to the workers’ issues. We can see that Du Bois and Marx agree that the ignorance of capitalists toward the workers is a result of a lack of empathy, but we can also see that Marx chooses to view this ignorance as a result of the inherent inferiority that white people place upon their laborers. And so, these theorists would say that COVID-19 created the conditions conducive to allowing such an institution to further solidify: low-wage laborers would continue to be ignored and dehumanized, and the racial logics of oppression embedded therein would also be forgotten.
Taken together, the lens through which Marx and Du Bois view the COVID-19 pandemic’s effect on the economic conditions of non-white populations is very similar.
Du Bois is able to prove his theory of a lack of empathy and expression of the real soul of white culture through Marx’s discussion on the exploitative process of capitalists, and how laborers are simply regarded as slaves and not human workers. These critiques allow us to view the turbulent nature through which society has made COVID-19 harder to deal with.
What is most profound is that society has further alienated communities from each other by using what Du Bois calls a, “vast veil.” The veil compels people to create a division in the way they regard and treat others, and operates along racial and economic lines. This is exemplified by the ongoing plight where a high concentration of African Americans work low-wage jobs, and therefore are viewed through a veil that denies them of their humanity: better working conditions and economic development. Furthermore, society has alienated communities from each other by focusing on the accumulation of profit. As Marx would say, “the movement of capital is unlimited and ceaseless.” By solely focusing on the competitive nature to produce more and more profit each day, and to fulfill capital accumulation during a pandemic, society is forcing itself to alienate communities from each other by prioritizing capitalist interests.
