ROXBURY, MA, April 4 — The discussion topic, “We All Are Trayvon Martin,” drew the largest turn out this semester for Pizza and Politics.  Many students came for the first time, looking for some direction as to what they could do about this racist murder.  Students expressed their outrage at the lack of justice this system offers to black workers.  There was a sense of frustration at all the marches and symbolic hoodies, knowing that no matter how large the outcry, the crime could not be reversed nor would Trayvon be the last victim. 

The media was also roundly condemned for its role in criminalizing black youth, spreading ignorance, and distracting us from reality.  Everyone present knew how commonplace racist violence is, especially when committed by the police, and they were somewhat confused by the enormous attention this particular case was getting.

The discussion then veered away from blaming the system toward blaming the victim.  Students were criticizing black youth for dressing and carrying themselves like ìthugsî and this spread to a general critique of black youth for not ìknowing themselvesî well enough and being immature.  These points were answered with a class analysis: 

Capitalists maintain racism, sexism, and other capitalist ideas to keep the working class confused, divided, and more easily ruled.  Filling our heads with lies ensures that workers will passively accept wage slavery as “the way it is.” Keeping one section of the working class worse off than another not only makes billions of super-profits for the bosses, it is the main way they are able to  hide the 1 percent’s complete robbery of our class. Despite the Civil War, the Civil Rights Movement and a black president, the system keeps racism alive because it is the economic foundation of the bosses’ system and weakens the working class’s fight-back.  

Becoming numb to racism is a dangerous tendency that comes from a sense of powerlessness.  One of the roles of communists is to provide students and workers with an opportunity to express their anger and fight-back against every outrage of the capitalist system.

Distributing this issue of CHALLENGE (4/25) — “Youth Indict Racist System” — will enable us and our friends at Roxbury Community College to turn talk into action. PLP’s goal of tearing down capitalism and building a communist society provides a long-term solution for the suffering that racism causes.