Bio: (1901-1974) Trinidadian-American sociologist. Oliver Cox grew up in Trinidad, and in 1927 he emigrated to the United States. He studied law, and economics, and in the end received a doctorate in sociology at the University of Chicago. Cox taught at  Wiley College, Tuskegee Institute, Lincoln University, and  Wayne State University He was very critical of the way the Chicago School of Sociology, especially by Park, Warner, and Frazier treated race relations in America. He thought that the concept of caste, which had been used for white-black relations until then, was fallacious. Cox was also critical of the way Gunnar Myrdal and Ruth Benedict approached race and race relations.

In addition, he realized that the real cause of racism is not in the attitudes of individuals, which was then the dominant opinion. He concluded that racism arose alongside and was caused by the growth of modern capitalism because capitalist society profits from the existence of an oppressed group of people who can be easily exploited. According to Cox, racism in the United States is analogous to racism in Nazi Germany concerning the Jews. He believed that the cause of racism towards Jews was not in the authoritarian personality of members of the working class. Fascism acts as a politically organized aspect of capitalist class consciousness, and it arose as a reaction to economic problems, and it served to divert the anger of workers from capitalists to the members of other races. Cox minutely studied the dynamics and nature of world capitalism and concluded that European capitalism was shaped by international trade and uneven global development. That course of research is the reason why he is considered a precursor to the theoretical approach of Immanuel Wallerstein.

Main works

Caste, Class and Race (1948);

Foundations of Capitalism (1959);

Capitalism and American Leadership (1962);

Capitalism as a System (1964);

Jewish Self-Interest and Black Pluralism (1974).