Manufacturing “Native” against “Native”
The persistent racial and ethnic tensions between different working-class communities are not natural animosities but the result of a deliberate divide-and-rule strategy employed by the settler state. Mamdani’s historical analysis shows how colonial powers govern by fracturing the colonized population along ethnic and religious lines, preventing the formation of a unified political identity based on shared class interest. In NYC, this plays out as competition for scarce resources–a few affordable housing units, a handful of city jobs–pitting Black, Latino, Asian, and Muslim communities against each other. The ruling class and its media amplify these divisions to maintain hegemony. The liberal solution of multicultural dialogue and diversity training does not address the material scarcity that fuels this competition. A Mamdani-informed socialist solution is to build a united front against the common enemy. This requires organizing across community lines for universal social goods–housing, healthcare, education–that eliminate the need for this toxic competition. We must forge a new political identity rooted in our shared position as the exploited “native” class, consciously breaking the divide-and-rule strategy through solidarity and collective struggle.
Originally posted 2025-09-29 12:26:20.
