I was working on a comment for this article, when an article by Dr. Brown, The Origin of Racial Pathological Disorder, got me going. Instead of duplicating myself, I am just posting the same comment here.
Prior to the middle ages, European society was organized around an interconnected network of communal units (kinship clans, tribes, etc.). These kinship groups organized themselves as partnerships – men and women had equal status, there was little stratification, everyone contributed and children, the old, the sick, injured and maimed were taken care of by the clan. At the regional level, clans answered to each other and people captured in conflicts assumed a role in their new clan. These were not hippy-dippy-peace-loving communes. Life was brutal and people were clearly capable of defending themselves. However, there is very little, if any evidence of war within these kinship societies. And then, the Roman Empire fell, society collapsed, and Europe entered the Dark Ages.
In the 1500s, a new social order emerged. Instead of cooperation and kinship, European society re-organized around trade. This new social structure was intensely patriarchal and worshipped warrior Gods. Intensely rigid, hierarchical social institutions emerged, including slavery, standing armies of warriors (ready to support, protect and advance trade), endless wars and the "corporate" structure of colonial empires.
In turn, farmers, tradesmen, artisans, tailors, bakers, etc. banded together in unions and guilds to protect and advance their trade interests. To provide their businesses with labor and protection, people organized “corporate-family-units” (the larger the family, the more workers for the family business). 10, 11 and 12 children were common.
White culture emerged as an “ownership” society, a possessive and intensely patriarchal society. This is the root of the white family structure still with us today.
In America, laws and social norms were rooted in white men’s “right to own”. The Constitution protected “their right” to own human beings. The first amendment protected “their right” to own speech. The second amendment protected “their right” to own guns. Real estate laws protect “their right” to own property. The Castle Doctrine (how medieval can you get?) protects “their right” to kill anyone who enters their property. Business law protects “their right” to own factories, ideas, employees, public infrastructure and natural resources. The military protects their “family business interests” overseas (a family business is the nation’s business).
Listen closely. When white people talk, they use possessive language “my” family, “my” wife, “my” husband, “my” children, “my” religion, “my” home, “my” employees, “my” country, “my” president, “my” church, “my” people, “my” business, job, neighborhood, car, reputation, politician, relative, in-law, employee, citizen, priest, preacher or community that is financially dependent on them.
Think carefully. In the “corporate family” nepotism is rampant. Like corporations, status and wealth remain in the “corporate family” (aka heirs).
Be it the family farm, the drycleaners, the family restaurant, academia, firemen, police, or politics, the “family-business” remains the organizing principle in white culture, white society and white family life.
The New York, Chicago and big city mobs are “family-businesses”. Drug cartels are “family-businesses.” Police and fire departments are “family-businesses”. National and multi-national corporations are “family-businesses”. Mom and Pop businesses are “family businesses”. Billion-dollar foundations and charitable organizations are “family businesses.” Ivy League Universities serve “family-businesses.” And once again, the Republican Party is a “family business.”
As David Brookes wrote of the corporate family in America, “We take it as the norm, even though this wasn’t the way most humans lived during the tens of thousands of years before 1950, and it isn’t the way most humans have lived during the 55 years since 1965. That 1950–65 window was not normal. It was a freakish historical moment when all of society conspired, wittingly and not, to obscure the essential fragility of the nuclear family.”
Nonetheless, conservatives are fighting hard to preserve the “corporate-family” structure (now known as the traditional family, the nuclear family, the family unit, or the Christian family).
In Citizen’s United, the Supreme Court returned “their right” to own politicians. Most recently, the Supreme Court returned “their right” to own female wombs that supply the workforce for “their family businesses”. These family businesses have no intention of educating or providing healthcare or housing to this workforce. America’s “family businesses” are in dire need of workers to do their “dirty-work” at home and their fighting overseas.
For four years, the United States Presidency was “The Trump family business” and the White House was “their corporate-headquarters”. In Donald Trump’s old white man mind, he owns his wives, his children, his employees, his accountants, his attorneys (and for four years he owned his military, his CIA, his FBI, his political party and his family’s country). To white conservatives, the Trump family presidency looked normal, traditional, and right. They did not feel like they were part of the Trump family. They felt like they were part of the “Trump family business”. That’s how deep the “corporate-family” is embedded in white culture.
Dr Brown, reminds us that racism is pathological. Of course, racism is pathological. Look at the social context in which it operates.
The majority of Americans have rejected every ideal and every principle of the “corporate family” structure. Racism is the only thing left holding the “white family business” structure together. If white people abandon the corporate family model, the “family businesses” of the rich and powerful will come crashing down – and so will the social structure that sustains our racist systems.
In case anyone is interested in this subject, I went through my notes and found two good articles on the subject.
This one is by David Brooks (a white conservative)
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/03/the-nuclear-family-was-a-mistake/605536/
This one is by Ta-Nehisis Coates (a black liberal).
Here's the link to Dr. Brown's article.
https://medium.com/afrosapiophile/the-origin-of-racial-pathological-disorder-6df29a2527b2
Okay, those are my thoughts for the day. I would really appreciate any thoughts people might want to share.
