Marxism and Antiracism: Rethinking the Politics of Difference

Abstract

Theorists of antiracism commonly embrace recognition of difference as a theoretical starting point, often as a corrective to a perceived economic reductionism associated with Marxism. This article suggests that the divide between Marxism and antiracist theory informed by the politics of difference needs to be reconsidered. There is far more ground for commonality than may be assumed. Central to this is recognition of a certain “politics of difference” in Marx's work. Various types of difference, considered here as types of conflictual social relationships, are rooted in three forms of human suffering, or socially constructed human difference, that operate together. Exploitation is one such conflictual social relationship, but it is commonly seen to be the only one in a Marxist analysis; others are alienation and oppression. This article elaborates this understanding of Marxist theory and, in the process, reconsiders such concepts as “whiteness” and “privilege” in the reproduction of capitalist hegemony.