The ‘20s: Culture, Consumption, and Crash 129secretive deal-making, and let companies fix prices and production—if, as he
saw it, it would make capitalism more rational and thus less “damn greedy.”
In today’s political economy, it is safe to say, the government and corporations
and banks are so interconnected that they form a homogenized unit [much
like milk and cream are the ingredients in the “half-and-half” you put in your
coffee, which is mixed together so thoroughly that you cannot tell which part
is milk and which part cream]. While there are sometimes disagreements on
a particular policy or tactic, they organize and control the economy in the
interests of the leading capitalists, while small businesses and, even more,
workers and consumers have little input into the process, but they are expect-
ed to buy things.
Black Culture, White Money
As noted, Blacks saw great opportunities when Wilson declared a war to
make the world “safe for democracy” in 1917, only to see the segregated
South remain violently racist. DuBois and others had thought political
action and patriotic involvement in the war would create momentum for
civil rights changes at home. They did not. So other African-Americans,
more angry and extreme, were drawn to the doctrine of Pan-Africanism
being promoted by Marcus Garvey. An immigrant from Jamaica in 1916,
Garvey established himself as a vocal nationalist leader who pushed for self-
determination, freedom, and separation from White society all together, a
much more radical program than DuBois. He started the Universal Negro
Improvement Association (UNIA) in Jamaica in 1914 and moved it to Harlem
in 1917. The UNIA became the largest black organization in history, as it
claimed to have four million members [the number was likely much smaller]
across 38 states and the Caribbean. Rather than integration into the
American economic structure through membership in labor unions, as Black
labor leaders like A. Philip Randolph and Chandler Owen championed,
Garvey warned against Black involvement or cooperation with all White
institutions, even those that appeared to be allied with African-Americans.
As Garvey saw it, a typical White liberal was just as likely as a Georgia
Klansman to join a lynch mob. The UNIA’s goal of separation from the
White mainstream by returning all Blacks to Africa set it apart from other
civil rights organizations.