The Communist Manifesto provided the basis for the 1619 Project. Change my mind.

How the Communist Manifesto shows up in the woke left ideology today, part 1

Oct 24, 2022

This will be the first in a series of how The Communist Manifesto shows up in woke ideology today. If you appreciate my work, I hope you’ll consider ordering my book and supporting my work on Patreon, Locals, or through a Substack subscription.

This past week, my supporter community read The Communist Manifesto for our book club (we’re doing the unabomber’s manifesto next).

I’ll admit, I hadn’t read since college. And reading The Communist Manifesto at 19 years old when you have no life experience is a much different experience than reading it at 41 years old after having built multiple businesses.

When I was young, it seemed like a nice idea.

Now, it seems downright insane.

If you haven’t read it lately, I’d encourage you to pick up a copy. There are different translations available, and you can also find a copy free online. Here’s the one I’m referencing for the purposes of this.

But in this series, I wanted to discuss a few points from the Manifesto that we see show up in our battle against the woke left ideology today. This will be the first in several short articles I’ll write about how The Communist Manifesto shows up in the woke left’s ideology today.

The Communist Manifesto provided the basis for the 1619 Project. Change my mind.

In the first chapter - Bourgeois and Proletarians - Marx and Engels write the following:

“The bourgeoisie, by the rapid improvement of all instruments of production, by immensely facilitated means of communication, draws all, even the most barbarian, nations into civilisation…It compels all nations, on pain of extinction, to adopt the bourgeois mode of production; it compels them to introduce what it calls civilization into their midst, i.e., to become bourgeois themselves. In one word, it creates a world after its own image.”

My audience will often hear me discuss that whiteness means capitalism. It’s not skin color. When they use the term whiteness, they are referring to who owns power (the bourgeois) and the system of capitalism that supports them.

One of the easiest things you can do if you want to understand what the woke left really means when it says “whiteness” is to replace “whiteness” with “capitalism” when you’re listening to them talk.

So, let’s try that exercise with this passage, but instead of bourgeois (which is another way of saying capitalists), allow me to replace it with whiteness:

“WHITENESS, by the rapid improvement of all instruments of production, by immensely facilitated means of communication, draws all, even the most barbarian, nations into civilisation…It compels all nations, on pain of extinction, to adopt the WHITE mode of production; it compels them to introduce what it calls civilization into their midst, i.e., to become WHITE themselves. In one word, it creates a world after its own image.”

That, my friends, is the basis of the 1619 project. It’s the basis of systemic racism.

Here is what the Nikole Hannah Joneses of the world teach about what “whiteness” means and where it comes from:

White people did not exist before they brought the first slaves to America in 1619.

Prior to that, they used to refer to themselves as English or French, or Irish - it was related to their nation of origin. However, when they brought slaves to America, they began calling themselves (the masters, the property owners) white to differentiate themselves from those who were not white.

Thus whiteness was born. They did this to deliberately separate white and non-white people - white people as the oppressors and non-white people as the oppressed.

Then, they used slavery to build the foundations for the country that were based on keeping white people (the oppressors, the bourgeois, the capitalist) in power and non-white people (the oppressed, the proletarians, the workers)out of power.

They believe that Europeans created whiteness in order to ensure they have power over all non-white people and that the system advantages them in every way.

But the real system they are referring to is the economic system they blame for slavery - it’s capitalism.

This is how racism became systemic - whiteness was built into the system starting with the white slave owners. This system (capitalism) is the basis we still work from today.

I’ve italicized that to emphasize that I do not agree with any of their premises - I’m simply explaining what they believe.

When you swap “bourgeois” with “whiteness", you discover writings that are almost identical in their application.

Here’s another example.

In the following chapter in The Communist Manifesto - Proletarians and Communists - Marx and Engels write the following:

“To be a capitalist is to have not only a purely personal, but a social status in production…Capital is, therefore, not a personal, it is a social power.”

Let’s play our game again.

“To be WHITE is to have not only a purely personal, but a social status in the system. WHITENESS is, therefore, not a personal, it is a social power.”

Again, the words may have changed. But, insofar as the woke left is concerned, the meaning is the same.

Use this exercise with almost any text or video from the woke left.

Every time they say whiteness or oppressors, replace it with bourgeoise or capitalist.

Every time they say BIPOC or oppressed (or some derivation of what they perceive to be a disadvantaged group), replace it with proletarian or worker.

These terms are interchangeable.

Whiteness = Bourgeoise = Capitalism = Oppressor

BIPOC = Proletariat = Worker = Oppressed

These terms are interchangeable.

The Communist Manifesto has just been rebranded as the 1619 project because race insights more activism than class in our present-day society.

Do you agree? Disagree? Have another take? Leave a comment below.

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