By Sandeep Vaheesan, The Appeal
Antitrust law, which was once a top line cause of populist and progressive movements fighting for a fair and democratic society, did control corporate authority in the past and can do so again.
This commentary is part of The Appeal’s collection of opinion and analysis.
Congress enacted the antitrust laws to check corporate power, but today these laws maintain the corporate domination of people of color. Corporations, which are overwhelmingly owned and run by whites, exploit and control Black and brown workers and business proprietors, thanks, in part, to conservative reinterpretations and applications of antitrust. White workers and business owners suffer similar injuries too. But like so many nominally race-neutral laws, policies, and practices in American society, antitrust appears to inflict a disparate impact on people of color, from college athletes and Rocky Mountain shepherds left at the mercy of colluding employers to fast-food franchisees dominated by multinational chains to Uber drivers thwarted from forming unions.
Antitrust law is not destined to remain a tool of racial injustice. Its present perpetuation of hierarchy is a product of the conservative takeover of the federal judiciary and executive branch that began in the 1970s. Supreme Court justices and antitrust officials appointed by Presidents Nixon, Ford, and Reagan reoriented antitrust law to focus on “consumer welfare” and, to advance this aim, loosened various restrictions on corporate behavior—legal and policy choices that the Clinton and Obama administrations accepted. What judges and technocrats did, the American public can reverse. A reconstructed antitrust would control the size and discretion of corporations and permit workers and independent firms to build power. It would serve as an important weapon against corporate hegemony over the working and small proprietor classes and advance the freedom of people of color in the United States.
