Week 4 - Racism and Capitalism Are Intertwined


Dear Edmund James, Director of California Department of Education,

I hope this letter finds you well Mr. James, I know the task of educating the masses of California, especially those foreigners, looms ahead. I am writing you to advocate for a partnership between your department and my business. It may seem at first that we have disparate interests, after all, I am a businessman concerned with increasing my railroad revenues and you are concerned with the overseeing of public education and changing the minds of upcoming generations. However, may I direct your attention to our common interests.

First, we must acknowledge our shared heritage, we are Anglo-Americans, and, in fact, I believe our parents come from neighboring states. My parents settled in Los Angeles from Ohio and if I have the right information, I believe your family moved from Illinois when you were just a child. Because of this shared upbringing, I can assume that our parents installed in us the same proper values as Protestants and whites. We must therefore acknowledge the superiority of our own values and habits as opposed to the habits and values of those we will help shape the destinies of: the Mexicans that increase the population of non-whites in Los Angeles daily.

Let me first lay out the advantages of a partnership. Your goal is to use education as a tool and a means of ripping children and women away from their roots, their families, and their autonomous identity, right? My goal is very similar, I hope to have reliable employees removed from their sense of ethnic identity and national Mexican identity so that they are more loyal. I believe we can both accomplish our aims if we work together. I will recruit employees with families and then you can work to educate the children and wives.

We can also look to the past for examples of this advantages partnership between government and business. Originally on the border in Texas, white businesses worked with the government to make sure that migrant workers coming from Mexico came to their labor companies instead of companies owned by Chicanos. Some may call this combo capitalism intertwined with racism – or are they just one and the same? – but I think it’s a great way to make money and advance the interests of the US government! Thank you so much for your consideration.

Sincerely,

John Davidson
President of Davidson Railroads

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