African-Americans as an Internal Colony: The Theory of Internal Colonialism
by Peter Bohmer
December 20, 1998
note: This article will appear in a forthcoming book edited by John Whitehead and Cobie Kwasi Harris, Readings in Black Political Economy (1999, Kendall/Hunt, Dubuque, Iowa). In converting it to a Web document, all footnotes and references were erased. Email me or write me for the references.
Introduction
The theory of internal colonialism attempts to expose, analyze and critique the history of racism. It explains the oppression of African-Americans and other people of color in the United States, particularly people of Mexican and Puerto Rican background, Native Americans and African-Americans, as internalized colonies, and includes a strategy for the elimination of racism.
The intellectual origin of this theory was the written and spoken condemnation of European colonialism and the putting forward of an anti-colonial national liberation strategy by Kwame Nkrumah, and most influentially, Frantz Fanon. Early proponents of this theory in the United States such as Malcolm X and Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Turé), were inspired by anti-colonial and anti-imperialist movements in the Third World, and their victories in Ghana, Cuba and Algeria. They decided that the critique of colonialism and neo-colonialism was the most suitable one for understanding the oppression of blacks and other people of color in the United States. They found relevant the analysis of the domination of oppressed people based on the violence of the colonizer, the exploitation of their land, labor and natural resources, and the systematic attempt to destroy the culture of non-European people in the search for profits.
In the late 1960’s and 1970’s, anti-racist analysis and activism increasingly worked from within a developing internal colonial framework. This framework converged with the long tradition of Black Nationalism, the movement for Black Power, and the growing radicalization of many activists. This led to a theory and practice that identified black people within the United States as part of the Third World, requiring political and economic independence – a national liberation struggle -- to end their oppression.
While organizations such as the Black Panther Party, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) after 1965, and the League of Revolutionary Black Workers described their ideology and strategy as revolutionary nationalism, they implicitly subscribed to the theory of internal colonialism. These groups have been destroyed by severe repression and by internal weaknesses, but the theory of internal colonialism remains relevant.
The Theory
Carmichael and Hamilton define racism as "the predication of decisions and policies on considerations of race for the purpose of subordinating a racial group and maintaining control over that group." This theory uses the terms of racism, internal colonialism and institutional racism interchangeably to focus on white and capitalist domination over all aspects of the lives of blacks. The theme of white domination and black subordination based on the unequal distribution of political and economic power is pervasive. To Barrera, internal colonialism is:
"a structured relationship of domination and subordination which are defined along ethnic and/or racial lines when the relationship is established or maintained to serve the interests of all or part of the dominant group." ..."in which the dominant and subordinate populations intermingle."
These relations of dominance were established by force to secure the labor of colonized people for the least desirable jobs, for the "dirty and servile" jobs that whites wish to avoid. The internal colony continues to provides labor for the secondary labor market, as a ‘reserve army of labor’ and reproduces black subordination.
To Robert Allen, the basis of this racial system is:
"a historically evolved structure of inequality aimed at securing total control of the labor of the victimized group. Racial oppression amounts to building an economic social and cultural wall around a group of workers, to create in effect a labor concentration camp… Historically, the structure evolved to meet the American capitalist system's need for a permanent reservoir of subordinated labor -- labor that could be locked into the worst jobs with lowest pay (or no pay in the case of slaves); labor that could be readily mobilized and demobilized as the capitalist system swings through its boom-recession economic cycle, labor that could be kept unorganized and used as pawns in the battles between employers and other workers."
The culture, the State, and particularly the ghetto constitute the racial system. The ghetto substitutes for the Third World nation in this theory. The ghetto depends on small and large capitalist enterprises, which are controlled by whites, for jobs and for purchasing most goods and services. Its inhabitants must sell their labor power and buy necessary commodities at inflated prices from these enterprises. Loans or other credit to finance economic development are either not available or available only at interest rates well above the market rate. The police, schools, social service agencies and all levels of government exercise political control over the ghetto residents. The government distributes public services in a racially discriminatory manner. Local politicians may be residents of the community but they have little power and they serve the needs of outside forces. Ghettos also shield whites from severe social problems and much of the cost of racial capitalism. The dominant culture and segregated living patterns produce a white nationality, where ‘American’ means ‘white American’, where white people are considered the norm and black people are considered different, unfamiliar and not quite equal. The destructive psychological effects of the racist culture cause an internalized oppression within black people, including feelings of inferiority, and antagonism toward other black people.
Integration is not the solution in this framework. Rather the ghetto is seen as the site of oppression but simultaneously the potential base for black resistance and power. A key part of this strategy is building a self-conscious culture of resistance from existing black culture.
The State maintains white capitalist domination in two main ways. It represses demands for black power and the self-determination but sponsors social programs, such as the war on poverty, and affirmative action to co-opt political challenges.
The theory of internal colonialism (like the class-based theory) sees capitalism as the root of racial oppression, and the accumulation of capital as a key determinant of earnings, profits and economic change. Unlike the orthodox Marxist approach, nationality or race relations are not reducible to class relations and the class struggle. Rather, ones race is central to the determination of ones identity, ones consciousness, ones work and ones life. The underlying economic interests between black and white workers is not assumed to be the same as each other, nor is it believed that they will eventually forge a unified class, which will lead the anti-capitalist movements. The focus in internal colonialism is on racial oppression itself, rather than on racial division as merely an instrument of capitalist control and as an impediment to working class unity.
Strengths of the Theory of Internal Colonialism
The internal colonialist model resonates with the perceived political, social and economic reality of many black, Latino and Native American activists, intellectuals, and other members of these communities, and of Asian American and white activists and anti-racist intellectuals. Its focus on race and racism as shaping the consciousness and activities of blacks and whites and their interaction is essential. It counters claims that racism is not a primary aspect of past and present United States political economy. It highlights the interrelated nature of racism in the economy, neighborhoods and communities, the culture and the State. No theory has a better explanation for the causes and consequences of high black unemployment, of the high concentration of black people in the least desirable jobs in society, and their underrepresentation in professional, managerial and administrative occupations.
Weakness of the Theory: Its Economics
An economic theory of internal colonialism should be able to analyze continuities and changes in racial inequality at the micro and societal level. The actual mechanisms for reproducing these inequalities are not clearly specified. There is ample discussion and analysis of the functions of an internal colony, but little on how the internal colony actually functions. The racial system seems to be based on a cross class alliance of whites dominated by capitalists. It is perpetuated by and within the State and ideological institutions, and by the hiring, firing and promotion policies of private firms. Although suggestive of why firms want to discriminate, it is of little help in explaining how they discriminate – or of the behavior of unions or government employment. It does not show how profit maximizing behavior by individual firms cause and perpetuate systematic racial inequality within the firm and on a societal scale.
Substantial inequality between blacks and whites persists in virtually all indicators of racial equality. However, a class analysis of blacks as predominantly unemployed or in the secondary labor market, with only a token group receiving sizeable incomes and enjoying decent working conditions, disguises significant gains. In 1997, 8.8% of black men and 1.7% of black women earned over $50,000, compared to only 1.7% of black men and 0.6% of black women in 1967 (correcting for inflation). The proportion of the black labor force that is employed as professionals or managers grew from 4.8% in 1960 to 11.8% in 1984, and to 17.8% by 1996. Though far lower than the 30% proportion of the white labor force that are professionals or managers, this is more than tokenism.
The absence of an adequate economic analysis in the theory of internal colonialism has paralleled the absence of an adequate theory of racism in radical and Marxist economics. The attempts by Barrera to apply the theory of internal colonialism to analyze the racial practices of a single firm, and by Baron to synthesize the model of internal colonialism with the theory of labor market segmentation were a start towards incorporating a more concrete economic analysis into the theory of internal colonialism.
However, little progress has been made since.
A Deficient Theory of the State
The internal colonialist framework lacks a developed theory of the State and its practices, and is more applicable to the United States before 1960 than after. The context for examining the contemporary State is a highly industrialized capitalist society, where racial categories are relevant and whites are the majority of the population, with a white elite that has preponderant economic power, and where the State is formally democratic and not overtly discriminatory. The relation between the State in the U.S. and African-Americans is different from the relation between an imperialist State and residents of Third World nations. Residents of neo-colonies have no democratic rights or political influence in the colonizer nation, nor claims on government services or income transfers from that State. Although the constitutional rights of African-Americans are often violated -- look at the disproportionate number of blacks arrested and imprisoned -- the civil and political rights of blacks since the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Act of 1964 and 1965 are substantially greater than the residents of a Third World nation in an imperialist State.
Seeing government laws, policies and practices as either repressive or co-optive effectively denies that the Civil Rights, Black Power and other movements won anything significant. The end of legal segregation is a gain, so is affirmative action. The increase in public sector employment of blacks since the 1950's in all regions of the country, in all occupations and at all levels of government is significant. Public sector employment of blacks caused the growth of many indicators of racial equality.
These gains are not necessarily permanent, and they can be lost, witness the last 20 years. Racial domination was not dealt a fatal blow; and the government still contributes to its perpetuation. Reforms were passed to weaken social movements and to limit the extent of change, but there still were victories. To deny this, means that short of revolution, positive effects or victories cannot result from the struggles of oppressed people. The view that all reforms are co-optive or trivial leads to the erroneous conclusion that all government policies and racial systems are equivalent.
Concluding Comments on Internal Colonialism
As a theory, internal colonialism explains continuities in the structure of U.S. racial inequality well. It is weak in explaining changes or discontinuities: the end of Jim Crow, real gains achieved in educational opportunities and in earnings of those employed, and increased possibilities of upward occupational mobility. In order to counter those who argue that racism is a serious problem of the past but not of the present, proponents of this theory often counter by claiming that the structure of racial inequality is fixed and unchanging. There are many useful analogies between colonial and neocolonial oppression of the Third World and the oppression of blacks and other people of color inside the United States. However, internal colonialism needs to be revised, developed and updated with regards to the economy, the State and gender relations, if it is to be more than just a powerful analogy.
Conclusion: Racism is the Problem, Capitalism is Not the Solution
Racial inequality in earnings and the distribution of wealth, in poverty and unemployment, and in the occupational and class structure persist in the contemporary period. Although much has changed, racism and racial inequality are still integral to U.S. capitalism. While racism cannot be reduced to employers’ needs to divide the working class, this is one important aspect of racism. While the situation of blacks in the United States is different from formerly colonized people in Africa or Asia, the focus of the theory of internal colonialism on systematic inequalities of power between blacks and whites in the culture, the State, and the economy is absolutely necessary for an analysis of racism as we approach the 21st century. While being aware of the limitations of Marxist and internal colonialist theories of racism, it would be a big mistake to ignore their contributions towards understanding and challenging racial oppression.
by Peter Bohmer
December 20, 1998
note: This article will appear in a forthcoming book edited by John Whitehead and Cobie Kwasi Harris, Readings in Black Political Economy (1999, Kendall/Hunt, Dubuque, Iowa). In converting it to a Web document, all footnotes and references were erased. Email me or write me for the references.
Introduction
The theory of internal colonialism attempts to expose, analyze and critique the history of racism. It explains the oppression of African-Americans and other people of color in the United States, particularly people of Mexican and Puerto Rican background, Native Americans and African-Americans, as internalized colonies, and includes a strategy for the elimination of racism.
The intellectual origin of this theory was the written and spoken condemnation of European colonialism and the putting forward of an anti-colonial national liberation strategy by Kwame Nkrumah, and most influentially, Frantz Fanon. Early proponents of this theory in the United States such as Malcolm X and Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Turé), were inspired by anti-colonial and anti-imperialist movements in the Third World, and their victories in Ghana, Cuba and Algeria. They decided that the critique of colonialism and neo-colonialism was the most suitable one for understanding the oppression of blacks and other people of color in the United States. They found relevant the analysis of the domination of oppressed people based on the violence of the colonizer, the exploitation of their land, labor and natural resources, and the systematic attempt to destroy the culture of non-European people in the search for profits.
In the late 1960’s and 1970’s, anti-racist analysis and activism increasingly worked from within a developing internal colonial framework. This framework converged with the long tradition of Black Nationalism, the movement for Black Power, and the growing radicalization of many activists. This led to a theory and practice that identified black people within the United States as part of the Third World, requiring political and economic independence – a national liberation struggle -- to end their oppression.
While organizations such as the Black Panther Party, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) after 1965, and the League of Revolutionary Black Workers described their ideology and strategy as revolutionary nationalism, they implicitly subscribed to the theory of internal colonialism. These groups have been destroyed by severe repression and by internal weaknesses, but the theory of internal colonialism remains relevant.
The Theory
Carmichael and Hamilton define racism as "the predication of decisions and policies on considerations of race for the purpose of subordinating a racial group and maintaining control over that group." This theory uses the terms of racism, internal colonialism and institutional racism interchangeably to focus on white and capitalist domination over all aspects of the lives of blacks. The theme of white domination and black subordination based on the unequal distribution of political and economic power is pervasive. To Barrera, internal colonialism is:
"a structured relationship of domination and subordination which are defined along ethnic and/or racial lines when the relationship is established or maintained to serve the interests of all or part of the dominant group." ..."in which the dominant and subordinate populations intermingle."
These relations of dominance were established by force to secure the labor of colonized people for the least desirable jobs, for the "dirty and servile" jobs that whites wish to avoid. The internal colony continues to provides labor for the secondary labor market, as a ‘reserve army of labor’ and reproduces black subordination.
To Robert Allen, the basis of this racial system is:
"a historically evolved structure of inequality aimed at securing total control of the labor of the victimized group. Racial oppression amounts to building an economic social and cultural wall around a group of workers, to create in effect a labor concentration camp… Historically, the structure evolved to meet the American capitalist system's need for a permanent reservoir of subordinated labor -- labor that could be locked into the worst jobs with lowest pay (or no pay in the case of slaves); labor that could be readily mobilized and demobilized as the capitalist system swings through its boom-recession economic cycle, labor that could be kept unorganized and used as pawns in the battles between employers and other workers."
The culture, the State, and particularly the ghetto constitute the racial system. The ghetto substitutes for the Third World nation in this theory. The ghetto depends on small and large capitalist enterprises, which are controlled by whites, for jobs and for purchasing most goods and services. Its inhabitants must sell their labor power and buy necessary commodities at inflated prices from these enterprises. Loans or other credit to finance economic development are either not available or available only at interest rates well above the market rate. The police, schools, social service agencies and all levels of government exercise political control over the ghetto residents. The government distributes public services in a racially discriminatory manner. Local politicians may be residents of the community but they have little power and they serve the needs of outside forces. Ghettos also shield whites from severe social problems and much of the cost of racial capitalism. The dominant culture and segregated living patterns produce a white nationality, where ‘American’ means ‘white American’, where white people are considered the norm and black people are considered different, unfamiliar and not quite equal. The destructive psychological effects of the racist culture cause an internalized oppression within black people, including feelings of inferiority, and antagonism toward other black people.
Integration is not the solution in this framework. Rather the ghetto is seen as the site of oppression but simultaneously the potential base for black resistance and power. A key part of this strategy is building a self-conscious culture of resistance from existing black culture.
The State maintains white capitalist domination in two main ways. It represses demands for black power and the self-determination but sponsors social programs, such as the war on poverty, and affirmative action to co-opt political challenges.
The theory of internal colonialism (like the class-based theory) sees capitalism as the root of racial oppression, and the accumulation of capital as a key determinant of earnings, profits and economic change. Unlike the orthodox Marxist approach, nationality or race relations are not reducible to class relations and the class struggle. Rather, ones race is central to the determination of ones identity, ones consciousness, ones work and ones life. The underlying economic interests between black and white workers is not assumed to be the same as each other, nor is it believed that they will eventually forge a unified class, which will lead the anti-capitalist movements. The focus in internal colonialism is on racial oppression itself, rather than on racial division as merely an instrument of capitalist control and as an impediment to working class unity.
Strengths of the Theory of Internal Colonialism
The internal colonialist model resonates with the perceived political, social and economic reality of many black, Latino and Native American activists, intellectuals, and other members of these communities, and of Asian American and white activists and anti-racist intellectuals. Its focus on race and racism as shaping the consciousness and activities of blacks and whites and their interaction is essential. It counters claims that racism is not a primary aspect of past and present United States political economy. It highlights the interrelated nature of racism in the economy, neighborhoods and communities, the culture and the State. No theory has a better explanation for the causes and consequences of high black unemployment, of the high concentration of black people in the least desirable jobs in society, and their underrepresentation in professional, managerial and administrative occupations.
Weakness of the Theory: Its Economics
An economic theory of internal colonialism should be able to analyze continuities and changes in racial inequality at the micro and societal level. The actual mechanisms for reproducing these inequalities are not clearly specified. There is ample discussion and analysis of the functions of an internal colony, but little on how the internal colony actually functions. The racial system seems to be based on a cross class alliance of whites dominated by capitalists. It is perpetuated by and within the State and ideological institutions, and by the hiring, firing and promotion policies of private firms. Although suggestive of why firms want to discriminate, it is of little help in explaining how they discriminate – or of the behavior of unions or government employment. It does not show how profit maximizing behavior by individual firms cause and perpetuate systematic racial inequality within the firm and on a societal scale.
Substantial inequality between blacks and whites persists in virtually all indicators of racial equality. However, a class analysis of blacks as predominantly unemployed or in the secondary labor market, with only a token group receiving sizeable incomes and enjoying decent working conditions, disguises significant gains. In 1997, 8.8% of black men and 1.7% of black women earned over $50,000, compared to only 1.7% of black men and 0.6% of black women in 1967 (correcting for inflation). The proportion of the black labor force that is employed as professionals or managers grew from 4.8% in 1960 to 11.8% in 1984, and to 17.8% by 1996. Though far lower than the 30% proportion of the white labor force that are professionals or managers, this is more than tokenism.
The absence of an adequate economic analysis in the theory of internal colonialism has paralleled the absence of an adequate theory of racism in radical and Marxist economics. The attempts by Barrera to apply the theory of internal colonialism to analyze the racial practices of a single firm, and by Baron to synthesize the model of internal colonialism with the theory of labor market segmentation were a start towards incorporating a more concrete economic analysis into the theory of internal colonialism.
However, little progress has been made since.
A Deficient Theory of the State
The internal colonialist framework lacks a developed theory of the State and its practices, and is more applicable to the United States before 1960 than after. The context for examining the contemporary State is a highly industrialized capitalist society, where racial categories are relevant and whites are the majority of the population, with a white elite that has preponderant economic power, and where the State is formally democratic and not overtly discriminatory. The relation between the State in the U.S. and African-Americans is different from the relation between an imperialist State and residents of Third World nations. Residents of neo-colonies have no democratic rights or political influence in the colonizer nation, nor claims on government services or income transfers from that State. Although the constitutional rights of African-Americans are often violated -- look at the disproportionate number of blacks arrested and imprisoned -- the civil and political rights of blacks since the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Act of 1964 and 1965 are substantially greater than the residents of a Third World nation in an imperialist State.
Seeing government laws, policies and practices as either repressive or co-optive effectively denies that the Civil Rights, Black Power and other movements won anything significant. The end of legal segregation is a gain, so is affirmative action. The increase in public sector employment of blacks since the 1950's in all regions of the country, in all occupations and at all levels of government is significant. Public sector employment of blacks caused the growth of many indicators of racial equality.
These gains are not necessarily permanent, and they can be lost, witness the last 20 years. Racial domination was not dealt a fatal blow; and the government still contributes to its perpetuation. Reforms were passed to weaken social movements and to limit the extent of change, but there still were victories. To deny this, means that short of revolution, positive effects or victories cannot result from the struggles of oppressed people. The view that all reforms are co-optive or trivial leads to the erroneous conclusion that all government policies and racial systems are equivalent.
Concluding Comments on Internal Colonialism
As a theory, internal colonialism explains continuities in the structure of U.S. racial inequality well. It is weak in explaining changes or discontinuities: the end of Jim Crow, real gains achieved in educational opportunities and in earnings of those employed, and increased possibilities of upward occupational mobility. In order to counter those who argue that racism is a serious problem of the past but not of the present, proponents of this theory often counter by claiming that the structure of racial inequality is fixed and unchanging. There are many useful analogies between colonial and neocolonial oppression of the Third World and the oppression of blacks and other people of color inside the United States. However, internal colonialism needs to be revised, developed and updated with regards to the economy, the State and gender relations, if it is to be more than just a powerful analogy.
Conclusion: Racism is the Problem, Capitalism is Not the Solution
Racial inequality in earnings and the distribution of wealth, in poverty and unemployment, and in the occupational and class structure persist in the contemporary period. Although much has changed, racism and racial inequality are still integral to U.S. capitalism. While racism cannot be reduced to employers’ needs to divide the working class, this is one important aspect of racism. While the situation of blacks in the United States is different from formerly colonized people in Africa or Asia, the focus of the theory of internal colonialism on systematic inequalities of power between blacks and whites in the culture, the State, and the economy is absolutely necessary for an analysis of racism as we approach the 21st century. While being aware of the limitations of Marxist and internal colonialist theories of racism, it would be a big mistake to ignore their contributions towards understanding and challenging racial oppression.