White Trinidadian elites misread cross-racial solidarity emerging beneath their rule

Evidence

However, in the lower orders, where the mist was thickest and where received wisdom has taught us to expect Blackness, the contemporary spectrum was more complex: the natives of the New World obtained a savage red, European labor a mottled gray. Above their heads it was a simpler matter: the ruling classes stood in dramatic, white relief. But between ourselves and the specter of that American past are the historical and racial fables that obscure the related exploitations and oppressions of African, European, Asian, and Amerindian peoples during the intervening 200 years. As a means of obliterating these events, the myth of white solidarity arose and came to dominate American sensibility. It was for the most part a lie but a terribly seductive one. — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 427 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Indentured Indians replicated subcontinental caste stratification in Trinidad; Workplace solidarity across races could override racial conflict in colonial Trinidad; White solidarity as a racial identity was a myth obscuring shared exploitations — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 427

Related

• White solidarity as a racial identity was a myth obscuring shared exploitations (similarity 0.87)
• The Irish were the prototype white servants later absorbed into a white racial identity (similarity 0.82)
• Colonial whites misread multi-ethnic solidarity that would someday outnumber them. (similarity 0.81)
• Racial ideology obscured America’s class divisions with a myth of unity. (similarity 0.81)
• White racial solidarity was an ideology masking the origins of the white working class (similarity 0.80)
• Trinidad’s colored and Black middle classes alone remained discontent despite prosperity (similarity 0.80)
• Trinidad’s Black middle class mimicked white hierarchy yet faced an absolute caste ceiling (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• White solidarity as a racial identity was a myth obscuring shared exploitations #expands (0.60) — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 427