Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire
  • omnibus

Laboring Beyond Black Representation
Too Black
06 Apr 2022
Laboring Beyond Black Representation
Christian Smalls and Amazon Labor Union Members Celebrate Vote to Unionize in New York City on Aril 1, 2022 (Photo: REUTERS/ Brendan McDermid)

The allure of Black representation in high places can be very dangerous. A Black man organizes an unprecedented union victory but gets less attention than one celebrity slapping another. Yet it is the union organizer who will have a real impact on the lives of Black people.

Because most of what passes as Black thought nowadays has been criminally captured by white capital (philanthropic foundations, corporate advertising, government funding, academia, business roundtables etc.) it was inevitable that the recent union victory against Amazon would fail to trend in the same spellbounding way as recent stories have in the Blacksphere. As a consequence, a feeble smack from one rich negro onto another and a token "First Black" woman judge appointed to a supreme court that regularly rules against (Black) labor is naturally lifted above the story of the first union to form against the insidiously hostile employer, Amazon, that was led by a working class Black man, Chris Smalls. A well needed victory considering as of 2020 Black people made up 31 percent of the lowest paid employees at Amazon.

But this is not about representation in the narrow sense of what group of Black people deserves visibility over the next as it so often goes. It's a question of what indeed serves the needs of the people.

Most Black people are workers (or flat out unemployed). We are not celebrities. We are not influencers. We are not business owners. We are regular people trying to make ends meet, usually working for stingy employers who barely pay us enough to make those ends meet. Yet, popular conversations in the Blacksphere are disproportionately consumed with talk of Black faces in elite spaces or "Buy Black" campaigns that rarely seem to take the worker at said Black business into consideration. Rather, these conversations tend to privilege a small minority of Black people who most of us will never become, and as a result,  do not represent our needs. So why are they the center of conversation?

As stated at the opening, most of Black thought has been bought off by white capital. As in the Black artists, entrepreneurs, politicians, journalists, academics, influencers, activists who have the most sway over our day-to-day discourse are employed by, funded by, and/or backed by white capitalists whose interests are antithetical to our own. Behind this group of neo-colonial ventriloquists is a whole other striver class of Black folks auditioning for the same Black elite roles. Their overall class function is to herd the rage of the Black sheep back into the stables of the State.

The more we strive to be like this class of Black herdsmen the more we work against our own interests. As emancipatory journalist Dr. Jared Ball regularly reminds us, most of Black media are too invested in obtaining white ad dollars to center the Black working and lumpen class. To do so would potentially threaten the market share of the corporate backers they so desperately covet. Their backers are not so partial to a Black worker-led labor movement. Instead, they foolishly want us to believe celebrity deathmatches "protect" Black women more than collective bargaining. However, it's fair to say more Black people work at Amazon-like facilities than receive Oscars.

So what does serve the needs of the people? What does representation look like divorced from elite capture? If representation holds any value at all it must be to represent the needs of the people: food, shelter, healthcare, education, safety, resources, dignity, power just to name a few. The newly formed Amazon labor union by no means fills all those voids nor is it the most revolutionary act to be done. What it does is give Black workers a power base to struggle with alongside other oppressed people. If the victory sparks unionization across other Amazon-like facilities it will build a much larger power base than any "First Black" politicians, "Buy Black" campaigns or Black celebrity meltdowns combined.

This reality is not missed on white capital hence why cosmetic diversity and repressive action are used to counter such a possibility. I, like many Black folk in this settler colony, understand the need to escape the grips of our daunting reality from time to time. Entertainment and Black visibility can certainly aid in that endeavor but ultimately the goal has to be to transform our reality — not simply escape it. Celebrity centered analysis fails this goal. Shedding the Black peddlers of white capital is a start. Perhaps then the Black masses can serve our own needs.

Too Black is a poet, member of Black Alliance For Peace, and host of The Black Myths Podcast on Black Power Media. He is based in Indianapolis, IN and can be reached at [email protected] or @too_black_ on Twitter.

Amazon workers
Amazon
Black Labor
Representationalism
Black Face in High Place

Do you need and appreciate Black Agenda Report articles. Please click on the DONATE icon, and help us out, if you can.


Related Stories

Joe Biden and the Democrats Have Nothing to Offer Organized Labor, the ALU Included
Danny Haiphong, BAR Contributing Editor
Joe Biden and the Democrats Have Nothing to Offer Organized Labor, the ALU Included
11 May 2022
The Biden administration pays lip service to the trade union movement but has done nothing to break the Democratic Party’s long tradition of be
Through the fire of fighting Amazon Workers…
BAR Poet-in-Residence Raymond Nat Turner
Through the fire of fighting Amazon Workers…
20 April 2022
Through the fire of fighting Amazon Workers…
Bessemer Alabama Amazon Workers Continue Struggle to Unionize
Saladin Muhammad
Bessemer Alabama Amazon Workers Continue Struggle to Unionize
23 March 2022
The mostly Black labor force at an Amazon fulfillment center in Bessemer, Alabama will have a second opportunity to vote for unionization.
The Realities of Temp Work
Eugene Puryear
The Realities of Temp Work
16 February 2022
Poverty, wage theft, injuries, and even death are features of the temporary employment system.
Elections and the Illusion of Black Political Power
Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
Elections and the Illusion of Black Political Power
03 November 2021
Black politicians may be openly conservative or pretend leftists but their constituents rarely get what they need.
How Amazon Exploited a Weakened America
Sarah Leonard
How Amazon Exploited a Weakened America
15 July 2021
Amazon will not stop squeezing every drop from workers until those workers have more power.
Ben Fletcher: The Life and Times of a Black Wobbly
Brian Shuffler
Ben Fletcher: The Life and Times of a Black Wobbly
28 April 2021
The struggle for workers’ rights in this country has been an ongoing battle for hundreds of years.
Bessemer Amazon Union Drive: An Interview with the Lead Organizer
Luis Feliz Leon and Joshua Brewer
Bessemer Amazon Union Drive: An Interview with the Lead Organizer
21 April 2021
“We feel like we got a heck of a start, and we’re proud of it, and we’re proud of the workers that are willing to continue that fight.”
The Union Battle at Amazon Is Far from Over
Alec MacGillis
The Union Battle at Amazon Is Far from Over
21 April 2021
Amazon is increasingly defining what entry-level labor now looks like in America.
Organizing in the South 
Joseph B. Atkins 
Organizing in the South 
15 April 2021
Strong condemnations from the NAACP and Black Congressional Caucus of Amazon’s treatment of its workers might have made a difference in the strike

More Stories


  • Nancy Pelosi, White Supremacy, and China
    Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    Nancy Pelosi, White Supremacy, and China
    10 Aug 2022
    White supremacist arrogance was the order of the day when Nancy Pelosi ignored a red line set by the Chinese government and visited Taiwan.
  • ESSAY: Women in Prison: How We Are, Assata Shakur, 1978
    Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    ESSAY: Women in Prison: How We Are, Assata Shakur, 1978
    10 Aug 2022
    Assata Shakur exposes the conditions faced by incarcerated Black women in a powerful 1978 essay.
  • For the American Empire, Hypocrisy and War Go Hand in Hand
    Danny Haiphong, BAR Contributing Editor
    For the American Empire, Hypocrisy and War Go Hand in Hand
    10 Aug 2022
    American exceptionalist hypocrisy was on full display during Nancy Pelosi's provocative trip to Taiwan.
  • Crazy Like a Woodfox
    Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
    Crazy Like a Woodfox
    10 Aug 2022
    Crazy as a Woodfox...
  • US Threatens Ethiopia and Eritrea with “Genocide Designation”
    Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    US Threatens Ethiopia and Eritrea with “Genocide Designation”
    10 Aug 2022
    Ann Garrison was invited to address the annual Eritrean Festival, which was held in Dallas. These are her remarks.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us