Johnson Chapter 3

The main idea of this chapter is that capitalism is the reason racism still exists in the world today. That capitalism is the one thing that keeps whites and blacks separate and that if we had a different system racism would virtually disappear.

Johnson argues that capitalism is the means to make at lower coast then what the produces can sell that product for. Because they are trying to produce goods at low cost the capitalist pay their workers low wages and the reason they can do this is because of racism. If workers strike for higher wages then bring in minority workers who will work for less money.

However Johnson does not show that this is the reason that whites fear other groups. Maybe this was a valid theory several years ago but now labor laws and government regulations prevent factory owners from paying minorities lower wages. Although outsourcing is a concern for many workers Johnson did not provide enough proof to say that this is why racism is still alive and well.

I don’t think that this chapter was very accurate. I do believe that racism is taught more than natural but I think that it is not intentional. I think that children are taught that black is bad, not necessarily the skin color but the color black itself. Fairytales are filled with evil black witches in black hats and big bad black wolves that do terrible things to little kids. By association kids then think that anything that is black is out to get them. Once they learn that black people are bad there is little that anything anyone can do to change their mind.