Racial Capitalism
Racial capitalism made African Americans suffer in the hands of their white counterparts. At the peak of racial capitalism, white individuals, and their institutions were using blacks to acquire social and economic value (McDonnell, 1991). By deriving value from the non-white identity, the whites would sell the blacks to slavery for their benefits. McDonnell discusses how to land allotment acts that were passed to favor the whites and assimilate the blacks, particularly Indians into their Euro-American culture. The author says that the main idea was to “encourage the Indians to accept the social snd economic standards of the white society” (McDonnell, 199:11). It is, therefore, true that capitalism was a system of waged slavery that began with people being disposed of from their independent means of life. The assimilation of new cultures is possible if done using soft means but not by force. The African Americans were alienated from their lands and forced to adopt the American culture, an activity which the whites undertook with ulterior motives.
I agree with Sassen that capitalism was a project of the whites to exploit the blacks. It was a system to promote racism by eroding the identity of blacks by using women as objects of torture. She explains how the colonial descendants of slaves, particularly the women were violated in what the author terms as the Witch hunt (Federeci, 2004). The hunt was a form of genocide in Europe which mostly targeted the black women to coerce them to privatize their communal-owned land.” Capitalism is a social-economic system that is committed to sexism and racism” (Federeci, 2004:17). I don’t personally believe in the witch hunt because I think it was a system of eliminating the blacks who had been identified as being powerful in their land. Sylvia calls it the Black Death and through its primitive accumulation, it prepared the ground for the emergence of capitalism (Federeci, 2004). The development of capitalism also relied on the abuse of the female body and the experience can be given by the women who worked in the Maquila industry. Nevertheless, it is important to note that the oppression of women of color has a long history. It existed long before capitalism when society was based on patriarchal rules and favors.
Lastly, the three readings are all attached to capitalism and its effects on the African-American community. Racial capitalism has negative consequences both to individuals and society as a whole. It leads to the drainage of cultures and also has devastating effects on the social and economic lives of people. It is, therefore, the highest time to dismantle racial capitalism because once successful, the approach will bring respect to racial identity and allow progress especially in the black society. I have realized that the main desire for the whites was the land. From the privatization of communal land as described by Federici in the introduction to Caliban and the Witch to the ‘General Allotment Act of 1887’ as described by McDonnell. Black women have suffered the wrath of the whites. Film La Operacion explains how Puerta Rican women suffered after the US imposed sterilization policies on them. It is high time to make the women of the 21st century regain their voice and remember their power.