Racial Capitalism
Racial capitalism is the argument, developed by Cedric J. Robinson in Black Marxism (1983), that capitalism did not negate the racialism of the feudal European order but grew within it, so that capital accumulation continually generates and reproduces racial hierarchies. Robinson took the phrase from analysts of apartheid South Africa and generalised it: race and class are inextricable, and “racial capitalism” names modern capitalism as such, not a special variant of it. Robin D. G. Kelley’s gloss is that capitalism was “racial capitalism” from the beginning — its tendency was always to differentiate and exploit through racial regimes, not to homogenise.
In this vault the concept supplies the critical lens for reading anti-violence technology against the grain. Henne, Shelby and Harb’s study of Reporting Apps argues that these tools reproduce racial capitalism: they extract data from users, build property relations on data ownership and accumulation, commodify “diversity and inclusion,” and sustain ties to the Criminal Legal System that carry racialised risks. The lesson is that the seemingly neutral act of “building evidence” or “collecting data” is never neutral — it shapes whose stories become legible and who profits. This frames Techno-Solutionism as not merely naive but materially interested.
In this vault
- Examined inDatafication of MeToo
- Related toCriminal Legal System
- Tension withTechno-Solutionism