Capitalism's "Overseer Class" Upholds White Supremacy Under Guise of Diversity

"“we feared black cops even more than white cops, because the black cop had to work so much harder - on your head.” To see the continuing relevance of that quote, look to the horrific murder of Tyre Nichols in 2023 - a Black man beaten to death by five Black cops in Memphis, Tennessee. It's this system of terror that Thrasher exposes in this new book, not just the fact that “capitalism needs Black people as executioners, not as helpers” but the system that produces an overseer class of people coming from marginalized backgrounds who do the dirty work of white supremacy and heteropatriarchy by laundering the violence with the optics of diversity."

"Think of Alejandro Mayorkas, championed as the first Latino director of the Department of Homeland Security, policing the border to keep other Latinos out. Or comedian Bill Cosby, using his fame to chastise Black people for not upholding white middle-class values, while drugging and raping dozens of women. Or even Anderson Cooper, a ruling-class gay white CNN anchor, who has proudly worn various shirts that promote the Israeli and U.S. militaries as well as the New Orleans Police Department SWAT team to broadcast the “appropriate” behavior for properly assimilated gay patriots."

"Thrasher's focus in the book is not just on these individuals, but an entire class - from university administrators to celebrities to cabinet members - who climb the social ladder by stepping on the necks of the people demographically like them. The Overseer Class is wide-"

A quote from James Baldwin frames fear of Black police as intensified by the harsher conditions Black officers face. The murder of Tyre Nichols is presented as evidence of a broader system of terror carried out by officers. The argument centers on how capitalism and power structures rely on marginalized people to perform violent enforcement for white supremacy and heteropatriarchy. Examples include Alejandro Mayorkas policing the border to keep other Latinos out, Bill Cosby using celebrity to police Black behavior while committing sexual violence, and Anderson Cooper promoting militarized and police-aligned imagery as acceptable assimilation. The focus extends beyond individuals to a class that rises by stepping on the necks of people who share their demographics.

Read at Truthout