Many of us identify ourselves by “race” and ethnicity in daily conversation as well as on government forms. However, according to the American Anthropological Association, there are no biological foundations or genes for “race.” Humans are genetically more alike than different, yet the idea of “race” is embedded in our everyday dialogue. This is because “race” is an idea, a concept carefully reinforced and reproduced by capitalist society in order to maintain itself.

MARYLAND, June 27 — In the ongoing case of the two activist  black youths who have been jailed and denied bail for over four months, one has received a favorable ruling. He won his legal motion to be charged as a juvenile, not as an adult, meaning he won’t face a possible 80-year sentence.

While awaiting the youth’s trial, a similar case was heard and after about 12 minutes, the judge summarily threw away that other young man’s life, ruling that he would indeed be tried as an adult, and therefore could face many years in jail.

As the hearing for our teen started, we were packed into the courtroom and his lawyer asked us to stand. As we stood, the lawyer said, “They would all like to speak,” and the judge responded, “They just did!” In fact, toward the end of the hearing, the judge said that in her nearly 30 years on the bench, she had never seen that much support for anyone!

The two victims of the street robberies that our youths are charged with also testified. One, when asked for a recommended decision, replied that he himself “didn’t grow up in the best neighborhood” and that friends of his had made poor choices. He never answered the judge’s question and — obviously conflicted, as reflected in his long, thoughtful silence — he finally said he didn’t want to give an opinion. He seemed to have been truly affected by the highly positive things that witnesses said about the young activist.

When our young friend took the stand, he said he wants “a chance to prove to all the supporters that I can be the person they expect me to be.” That was the voice of someone who has walked the picket line supporting striking Stella D’Oro workers; who has voyaged to the San Joaquin Valley to hear first-hand the history of farmworkers’ struggles; who has helped give leadership to the successful fight for student bus passes to be accepted later in the evening so students without adequate funds can participate in after-school activities. It was the voice of our future.

If the racism that’s inherent in capitalism wasn’t already clear after this day in court, all one needed to do was look at the “prestigious” names carved in the courtroom’s stonework. One was the Supreme Court Judge Taney who ruled in the racist 1857 Dred Scott decision. He labeled African-Americans as “beings of an inferior order, and altogether unfit to associate with the white race, either in social or political relations, and so far inferior that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect.”

We need to flip that, and argue that the capitalist class has no laws which the working class is bound to respect. Just as the Dred Scott decision is considered to have been one of the indirect causes of the Civil War, the rejection of racism needs to find its fruition in a revolution to achieve a communist society.

Capitalism is a deadly system. It perpetuates itself by promoting a deadly culture: self-centered thinking, racism, and getting ahead by preying on others. In a sense, it’s not surprising that many people — including members of the working class and even members of the communist movement — are influenced by these bosses’ ideas and sometimes make bad decisions. After all, the class in power always dominates human thought because they control the means of disseminating culture: music, movies, textbooks, TV and so on.

As Progressive Labor Party grows in size and strength, a positive communist culture will become increasingly influential. Our bad decisions will lessen. Our humanity will, more and more, trump the sick corrupt spirit of capitalism.