Although black/white race relations have improved dramatically in the past two centuries, racial prejudice remains problematic. To understand this prejudice requires an examination of its historical roots. Racial prejudice results from past and present social practices that shape the perceptions of individuals.
Marxism provides an explanation for the historical persistence of racial prejudice in America. The basis of racial prejudice is power imbalance. Prior to the Civil War, much of the United States was actively involved in the slave trade. Africans were transported to American shores and forced into labor. This unfree labor could only be sustained by the adoption of certain attitudes by whites toward blacks: "It was only after Africans were enslaved that African people were represented in negative terms as an Other and that certain of their phenotypical characteristics were signified as expressive of their being a different (and inferior) type of human being" (Miles, 1993, p. 50). In other words, sharp distinctions were drawn between the owners of the means of production (whites) and the suppliers of forced labor (blacks). These distinctions enabled whites to enslave their fellow human beings while suffering minimal psychological repercussions.
Racism and prejudice served important economic purposes during America's formative years. As long as a certain population (blacks) were relegated to inferior position, their labor could be exploited by the dominant group (whites). This domination eventually caused considerable intergroup conflict for whites. Whites in the North supported the abolition of slavery, in part because their economic prosperity did not depend on the exploitation of blacks.
After the Civil War, the black slaves were emancipated, which ended the official domination of African Americans. The U.S. government attempted reforms that were aimed at elevating blacks to the status of first-clas...