Problem
A. What surprised your about the arguments M. Alexander is making?
B. Capitalists and workers pursue different strategies in living their lives, because they have different interests. Why is this true? In what ways are the interests of workers and wealth-owners (capitalists) different? Give examples to support your point.
C. Explain how the following statement from Reading 4.4 might be true in describing current American politics.
D. The BLM movement has spawned massive protests across the United States, which have often brought down statues of prominent US politicians who were slave-owners. Others have said that, in addition to targeting such statues because they represented slavery in American history, they should also be condemned for representing the wealthy, capitalist class, whose wealth dependent on having slaves as free workers. What do you think about this additional point of connecting slavery to the capitalist class? (In other words, if we started to make these connections, then the ongoing BLM-related protests would be against capitalism and racism. Would that make them more effective, than protests that focused merely on racism?).
E. Social class seems to be a major factor in explaining how American government is put together. Do you think this is still true for the American government and politics today? Explain your thoughts and provide an example or two to backup your arguments.
F. How the wealthy, capitalist classes wrote the Constitution, can you find ways in which the structure of US government seems to represent the interests and wishes of the class of wealthy Americans? (for example: federalism, division of power, electoral college, the way elections are held, etc...). Be specific and use examples.