The Overseer Class: A Manifesto

In this blistering follow-up to The Viral Underclass, journalist Thrasher lays siege to the politics of “representation,” wherein members of marginalized groups are given visible positions of authority in powerful institutions. Thrasher argues that such roles are Faustian bargains, as these figures are inevitably called upon to enforce their own oppression or the oppression of others. He labels such figures the “overseer class,” tracing the “deep roots” of representation back to slavery, when Black overseers had to be more cruel than their white counterparts to prove “they were worthy.” Today, Thrasher argues, structural incentives for the marginalized to become overseers have persisted. He spotlights “high profile overseers” like Alejandro Mayorkas, the first Latino and first immigrant to lead the Department of Homeland Security, under whose tenure more immigrants were deported than under the first Trump administration, and UN ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, a Black woman appointee who repeatedly vetoed UN resolutions for a ceasefire in Gaza. Thrasher pinpoints this dynamic recurring throughout contemporary American institutions like media and higher education. As an alternative to the moral trap of becoming an overseer, he offers up Toni Morrison’s advice to her students: “When you get these jobs that you have been so brilliantly trained for, just remember that your real job is that if you are free, you need to free somebody else.” By turns maddening and inspiring, this shines a harsh light on a political dead end in order to illuminate real possibilities for change. (May)