I've always been of the mind that an unemployed black steelworker has more in common with an unemployed white steelworker than he/she does with a black social justice activist.
Nothing cures whatever latent racist tendencies might be lurking underneath more effectively than working alongside that person who might be different from you. I encountered that time after time in the various shops and factories I was employed at.
Budd Automotive was the first place I worked where there was a noticeable contingent of black folks, mostly Jamaicans. I never sensed the slightest racially tinged friction between whites and blacks. In fact, if you got to know some of these folks, you'd find they'd invariably have a line on some quality weed at a good price.
What I did notice was that there was a certain prejudice against "Pakis" in some of the shops, like General Electric, for example. I think that's because at the time, the only Pakistanis working there had office jobs and weren't on the actual shop floor.
When I moved out to Calgary, there were a handful of Paks ("Paks" is OK; "Pakis" is racist) working day shift at the shop I was at, right next to me on the hot end of an oxy-acetylene torch, who would at the end of the shift head to the CP Rail shops to work another eight hours there.
These were just hard-working folks earning their way, and every working person recognizes and respects that in the person they're working next to.
Working people of all creeds and colours have always had lots more uniting them than dividing them.
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