Ian Afflerbach, University of North Georgia – The “Scab” as a Metaphor in American Labor Politics

The Academic Minute

Some insults end up forgotten to history, and some remain. What makes the difference?

Ian Afflerbach, associate professor of American literature at the University of North Georgia, looks into this with current events on the mind.

Ian Afflerbach is an Associate Professor at the University of North Georgia. He teaches courses on Modern American Fiction, African American Literature, and Popular Genres like Science Fiction. He’s currently working on his second book, “Sellouts! The Story of an American Insult.” His first book, Making Liberalism New (2021) was shortlisted for the Modernist Studies Association’s Best First Book prize. He has written for Public Books and The Conversation, and his articles have appeared in journals like PMLA, African American Review, and Novel.

The “Scab” as a Metaphor in American Labor Politics

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Over the years, American workers have used a remarkably rich vocabulary to shame traitors among their ranks. Some insults, like “blackleg,” are forgotten today. Others, like “rat” and “stool pigeon,” now sound more like the banter of noir cinema than charged political language.

No word, however, has stung American workers more consistently for the last century and half than “scab.”

This insult appears virtually any time there’s labor unrest in America. During the Writers Guild and Screen Actors Guild strikes of 2023, for example, celebrities like Drew Barrymore and Bill Maher were shamed as scabs for trying to continue their projects. President of the United Auto Workers, Shawn Fain, recently called Donald Trump a scab for suggesting that striking workers at Tesla should be illegally fired; Fain even wore a shirt saying “Donald Trump is a scab” at the 2024 Democratic National Convention.

But like so many of our cultural keywords, this familiar insult has an unfamiliar history. “Scab” actually dates back to Medieval Europe, when diseased skin was widely taken as the sign of a corrupt or immoral character. In the 1500s, English writers started using “scab” as slang for a scoundrel or rogue. By the 19^th century, however, American workers had adopted this word for a much more specific purpose: to attack any peers who refused to join a union, refused to strike, or acted as strikebreakers.

“Scab” worked as an insult among laborers because it directed visceral disgust at anyone tarnishing a natural bond, by putting self-interest above class solidarity.

Of course, insults only do so much. That’s why the Canadian Parliament recently passed landmark “anti-scabbing” legislation, prompting cries for similar protection of labor rights here in the United States.

Read More:
[The Conversation] – How organized labor shames its traitors − the story of the ‘scab’
[Public Books] – B-Sides: George S. Schuyler’s “Black Empire”
[Cambridge University Press] – On the Literary History of Selling Out: Craft, Identity, and Commercial Recognition

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