Zinn’s chapters “Persons of Mean and Vile Condition” and “Tyranny is Tyranny” discuss the growing class and racial divide between Americans. White settlers contributed to this class divide by not only treating people of color as inferior but also pinning minorities against each other. Something that really stood out to me was that black slaves were used to fight the Native Americans. The same idea discussed earlier that white Americans thought black slaves were easier to control is also portrayed in these chapters. Zinn mentioned that Native Americans rebelled more than black slaves, so settlers started to enslave black people more than the Native Americans. However, as the number of black slaves increased, so did the likelihood for the slaves to rebel. I think that the dichotomies that Zinn mentions are really important to recognize. He speaks of the contrast between slavery and freedom, servant and master, tenant and a landlord and finally the difference between the poor and rich. This inequity and class division seems to be what lead to the growing gap between classes.
The “Tyranny is Tyranny” chapter also discussed these class differences but more in the sense of financial differences rather than racial. However, these two ideas seem to go hand in hand, especially during the time of increased slavery and the establishment of the country. Zinn mentioned how Edmund Morgan sees racism as being more of a class issue than a race issue because both issues are related to one another. Generally the upper class would receive more benefits and monopolize the political power while the poorer people were struggling to fulfill their basic human needs. This brought about the issue of whether we should take some wealth from the richer people in order to prevent one group of people from being financially and politically elite. However, when you think about the people who are making laws and signing legislation, these are all white and wealthy men. Thus Zinn states that Indians, black slaves and women were all left out of the Constitution because they were “politically invisible” in comparison to the white wealthy men that ruled the nation.
I agree with this idea that class and race are closely related to each other. How can they not be in America? This country was founded on the exploitation of one race and the oppressive behaviors of the other. The problem is systemic and has a huge ripple effect to today and will continue to be a large issue until things are done in order to repair the injustices of the foundation. But I can even argue that nothing of any value can make up or fix for the years and years of systematic oppression and systemic oppression. The man needs to be took down and re built back up, and by the man I mean the system.
Elina, I also thought that it was interesting at how rich, white colonial America pinned various minority groups against each other out of fear that the minority groups would combine forces to overthrow them- the elite in society. If anything, I feel that this reveals something about the power dynamics minority groups have against dominant and oppressive groups in society. Additionally, I believe that Zinn (1980) does a wonderful job at detailing the differences between the rich, white men of colonial America versus the other groups of people often oppressed by their systems- white, middle-class men; blacks, indigenous people; women. Indubitably, classism is a system of oppression that is frequently overshadowed by race, yet it is indeed a much larger beast as Dr. Bezio said in her fifth podcast.