Class as a Metaphor for Race

I have just begun reading Jared Diamond’s Guns Germs and Steel. I didn’t know what it was about particularly only that several people have recommended it to me including my favorite graduate school professor. I thought it was a book about the players of western imperialism. It isn’t.

Diamond’s main argument is in contrast to the conclusion some have drawn that progress, by that I think he means technology and “civilization,” and in conjunction with that, wealth, has been duly distributed in the course of human history because some races (whites for the most part) are more capable or intelligent. Diamond believes that instead progress or lack of progress is determined not by the intellectual or physical makeup of race but by geographical differences in space, continental logistics (i.e. the landmass being north/south as opposed to east/west), and the availability of crops and livestock.

I am very, very late to the punch here as this book was published some time ago but so far, after reading the introduction and a chapter on Africa, I think it is articulate, astute and plausible. Yet, even haven read so little, I am bothered by a few gaps in the line of reasoning of this argument.

Don’t get me wrong, I fundamentally believe there is equal possibility of intelligence and capability in all human races and this is a rational assumption. I am sure there is a lot of truth to Diamond’s conjecture. However, I am not sure that we can assume that differences in the ways civilization is developed or not developed can be solely rooted in geography.

I should also mention that the difficulty in postulating theories within social science is that it’s hard to prove them with the evidence available, the evidence being generally archeological – bones, DNA studies, artifacts- but also perhaps including sociological/psychological research based in trial studies and interviews and written and oral history. A theory of social science really has to be strung together with all these elements and that is what Diamond has done. But it’s not like proving theories in physical science where you can have concrete mathematical equations and chemical reactions.

One particular metaphor came to mind when I was trying to figure out in my own mind reasons why I am not completely copasetic with Diamond’s argument. Within my own race, that is the WASP, but also including other groups of Europeans deemed white, we have further divisions within the class structure. I am white, but I am positioned within a certain class, middle class, defined mainly by my family of origin but also by my level of education and my function in society, namely that I am a white-collar worker.

Class has become a bit muddled of late, the last three or four decades I’d say. For instance, the benefits belonging to middle class in particular, the outcome of post-WWII wealth and abundance in the West and creation of public institutions among other things, are now widely available to members of all classes deemed “beneath” middle-class. Post-secondary education is possible to a person of any class as long as they have the grades and motivation. I suppose you could argue that class level in this case does limit the number of those enrolling in college; elementary and secondary education may have been unexceptional, leading to poor grades and test scores. But admittedly, this is America, and even with a GED, a person can enroll in community college. Furthermore, many people are able to climb up the class ladder without a four year college education and become white-collar and/or middle-class and upper-class. I have a friend with an AA degree in court reporting, whose roots are blue-collar, who makes more money than any woman I know with college degrees and is now solidly middle class. How many major league sportsmen, models, rock stars, actor can you think of that lack education yet make an infinitisimal amount of money?

Material goods see no class barriers and neither do the consumer loans that support some of the more expensive items like cars and homes. Often times, blue collar workers, the “working” class, have higher annual salaries than do white-collar workers. It is no longer outlandish to say that a unioned fork-lift operator can make as much a psychologist, training for that particular job costing exponentially less.

In defining differences between class in this country, we can’t so much look to education or wealth, but we can look to class culture and the values belonging to each class, or at least the stereotypes widely associated with each class. For example, I live in a neighborhood mixed in race and class. I would define my husband and I as middle class, in the fashion of the WASP: we have a neat and orderly lawn, i.e. no abandoned cars, tires or junk, that surrounds a home we have a mortgage on. We are quiet and keep to ourselves, no blasting music or boisterous family gatherings. We are reserved in the way we dress, no multiple gold chains and tattoos. (as an aside, there does exist an artist/bohemian subclass). We are college educated and our speech leans towards the grammatically correct, no “ain’t”, no substitution of the word anything with the word “nothin.’” We both work or have worked in white-collar fields. Our lesbian neighbors across the way are like us and I can determine that they also are WASPs and middle class by observing the way they dress, their cars, their lifestyle, their visitors.

So if I apply this example as a metaphor to race and how race is connected to wealth and progress, i.e., then I have to conclude that a race that is considered to be less sophisticated (white trash), less articulate, less aware and dependent on social decorum and rules, is not excluded from abundance. Therefore, if they are prohibited from acquiring the means by which to accrue wealth, it is not because they are not able. It is due to means out of their control, like climate and location. This is pretty much in line with Jared Diamond’s theory about race and wealth differentials.

However, this does not speak to what we define in human beings as intelligence and intellectual capacity and we are certainly not considering definitions of success and the influence of how we perceive the development of civilization. This is another can of worms entirely. For while my friend the court reporter is wealthier than me, I am more intellectual, and arguably, smarter. I require more in terms of intellectual stimulation in a job and in terms of what I do in my free time. I grasp concepts and ideas more readily than she does. So if we further apply my class metaphor, we could say that one race have the capacity to be wealthier than another race, but they may not be smarter. Their capacity for technology may not be as great.