"Workin' On The Chain Gang"

Chris Smith

In this blog I will examine the introduction of Walter Mosley’s “Workin’ On The Chain Gang”.

In it Mosley used race as a fundamental basis to further explain some of the problems that face us all in America. Mosley illustrates in the text how we are all subjugated to an economic system. He rationalizes the very idea that people are worth their weight in labor and the vassalage black people experienced for centuries is currently still standing and now inclusive of us all despite race, color, gender, or religion. He boldly states “We will have to pay for our future every day. We’ll pay in blood, sweat, and sacrifice.”

This authoritarianism we are all now slaves to is called capitalism. Mosley explains capitalism perfectly in the text saying, “Capitalism has no race or nationality. Capitalism has no humanity. All that exists in the capitalist bible is the margin of profit, the market share, and those quirks of individualism that must be dealt with in much the same manner as a mechanic must deal with a faulty element; removal and replacement” (Mosley, 12). This quotation is significant because it confirms that we are altogether really under the same order of ruling as slavery in the sense that we must do as our employer wills of us otherwise be removed. As with slavery we are at the shortcoming of supply and demand and so we must succumb.