Jacobin Radio Behind the News: Beyond Debates of Class vs. Identity w/ Nancy Fraser
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Mar 24, 2026 
Nancy Fraser, feminist philosopher and critical theorist, outlines the three faces of labor and argues for a class politics that centers race and gender. Natalie Moore, Chicago journalist, recounts federal layoffs hitting Black women and the struggle to translate public-sector skills. They discuss hidden reproductive labor, racialized job restructuring, and building cross-movement solidarity.
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Capitalism Constructs Racialized And Gendered Personhoods
- Expropriated labor is racialized as menial and degraded, while domesticated care labor is sentimentalized as sensitive and selfless.
- Fraser highlights how capitalism constructs different personhoods to slot people into these labor roles.
Grounding Intersectionality In Labor Structure
- Intersectionality's political aim matches Fraser's goal, but she seeks to ground it materially in labor organization rather than only identity analysis.
- She ties race and gender subject positions to concrete divisions in who does what work.
Marketization Reshaped Care Work Visibility And Forms
- Marketization made care work more visible and created three care modalities: paid for‑profit, public socialized, and unpaid household care.
- Public sector care (nurses, teachers) remains a center of labor militancy while for‑profit care often exploits immigrant workers.
