Week 4
racial capitalism
Key Questions
What is race? What is racism?
What is the relationship between racism and capitalism?
What is racial capitalism? Why is it important to think and talk about racial capitalism as opposed to just capitalism?
Required Materials:
Destin Jenkins and Justin Leroy, Histories of Racial Capitalism, "The Old History of Capitalism"
Shauna Sweeney, Histories of Racial Capitalism, "Gendering Racial Capitalism and the Black Heretical Tradition"
Chris Chen, "The Limit Point of Capitalist Equality"
Supplementary Materials:
K-Sue Park, Histories of Racial Capitalism, "Race, Innovation, and Financial Growth: The Example of Foreclosure"
Mishal Khan, Histories of Racial Capitalism, "The Indebted Among the 'Free': Producing Indian Labor Through Racial Capitalism"
Allan Lumba, Histories of Racial Capitalism, "Transpacific Migration, Racial Surplus, and Colonial Settlement"
Nikhil Pal Singh, Futures of Black Radicalism, "On Race, Violence, and So-Called Primitive Accumulation"
Ruth Wilson Gilmore, "Geographies of Racial Capitalism"
Exercise
Ruth Wilson Gilmore states that “capitalism requires inequality, and racism enshrines it.” Take a moment to write examples of how racism, both historically and currently, functions within capitalism. Can the two be separated? Can there be capitalism without racism?