The Class-Functionalist Theory of Race: An Empirical Exploration

We argue for a class functionalist explanation of race and examine empirical evidence to evaluate it. Capitalism is often unstable because exploitation produces conflict. Support mechanisms are required as system stabilizers. Systems that find such support mechanisms are more likely to be durable in the long run. There are at least two such mechanisms: make the exploited content through rising incomes, or divide the discontented. Racism does the latter and is selected for. In this case, high or rising profit rates are the signal of stability.

We present correlational evidence on the “functional benefits” of race on class, which is insufficient but necessary to support the functionalist account. In particular, correlational data ought to link racism with higher inequality, which is unstable in the absence of a “divider,” and higher rates of profit, which are facilitated by working class division and suppressed wages. We test the following: (1) Societies with rising inequality should see lagged increases in racism, or else political instability; (2) Societies with increasing racism should see lagged increases in the profit rate; and (3) these relationships should be strongest in contexts of low growth.

In making this case, we first provide a general defense of functional explanations and explain how they work and when they fail. Because the nature of functional explanation requires the explanandum to have important effects in the world, this argument puts race at the center of any discussion of capitalist class relations in racialized societies and explains it on the basis of its effects rather than its causes. Nonetheless, as we show in our conclusion, none of these arguments imply that race or racism is inherent to capitalist class relations. Racism may be explained by capitalism, even if it is not necessary for it.