美国劳动骑士团种族政策再探讨

On the Racial Policies of the Knights of Labor

劳动骑士团是19世纪八九十年代美国最强大的工会组织。传统观点认为,劳动骑士团的种族政策是建立在族群差异的基础上的,具体表现为包容黑人、排斥华人。本文考察了"对工作竞争的担忧"、"种族偏见"和"阶级意识的强弱"三个因素及其互动关系在劳动骑士团的种族政策形成中的作用,发现劳动骑士团的种族政策并非因族群而异,而是因地而异。在美国南部和西部,对工作竞争的担忧加深了白人骑士固有的种族偏见,它不但令南部骑士排斥黑人,也导致西部骑士仇视华工。同时,美国东北部的许多骑士具有较强的阶级觉悟,不同程度地克服了种族偏见,能够团结和善待中国移民。

The Knights of Labor(KOL) was one of the strongest labor unions in the U.S.in the 1880-90 s.It was commonly held that the racial policies of KOL-the acceptance of black people and the repulsion of the Chinese-was ethnically determined.However,surveying the three factors(the anxiety of employment,the racial bias,and the awareness of social class) and their interrelations,this paper discovers that the policies were in fact geographically determined.In the West and South,competition for employment exacerbated the extant racial prejudices of the white KOL members,resulting in discriminations against the blacks in the South,and the exclusion of Chinese workers in the West.Meanwhile,the 'knights' of the Northeast were more sensitive to class differentiations.They,to some extent,overcame the racial discrimination and were able to work and live together with the Chinese immigrants.