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Barrett and Roediger bring to light the extensiveness of race’s impacts on life in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The interwoven nature of economic, social and political segregation created an intricate social system. Work and social status were dictated more by race or nationality than merit. I found it interesting that the authors discuss that this was not simply a matter of social issues or political motivations. The system of segregation was encouraged in the workplace as well in order to stimulate productivity and competition between different ethnicities, as well as to protect native-born citizens from having to take on hard labor. This strategy depressed wages, disrupted the possibility of a cohesive laboring-class voice in politics or the workplace, and allowed for greater profit margins for businesses owners.
The hierarchy that formed from this system placed people in working conditions deemed appropriate for their ethnicity. Though slavery was outlawed, the powerful men in economics still exploited race differences. Today it seems that Americans have a difficult time conceptualizing how deep the racial divides were and how brutal the system was. Max points out in his blog post “Ask A Slave’s Critique of the American Education System,” that there was a misconception among modern Americans that slavery was comparable to modern jobs. Recently freed people of color and the working class “not-yet-white ethnics” experienced exploitation in their theoretically “free” jobs in a way far more akin to slavery than almost any modern American occupation (8). These not-fully white ethnicities and immigrants were even referred to as “our temporary negroes” (8).
I found this differentiation between “white” and foreign European very interesting because a few days ago I registered to vote and was asked to check my race. There was no separate race for Italian, Slavic, English or Irish. There was only “white.” The melting pot in this country has become so thoroughly stirred that it is extremely difficult to determine heritage except by skin color. The other interesting part of my voter registration form was “ethnicity.” The form had two options for this section: “Latino or Hispanic” or “non-Latino or Hispanic.” The comparison to such a form in late 19th century would have been stark. The importance of heritage and denomination has faded because differentiating between groups has become more and more difficult. It is impossible, however, to say that ethnicity no longer plays a role in economics, social life, or politics. The fact that ethnicity/race are still on a voter registration form means that people are still paying attention to the role that it plays in our society.