Racial Capitalism

Catalog description

This course introduces students to a tradition of radical scholarship on the articulations of race and racism with capitalism, and uses it as a frame through which to examine the ongoing role of racialized difference in structuring capitalist extraction. Beginning with chattel slavery's role in the origins of capitalism and moving into contemporary settings, the course will examine how capitalism produces race, how race shapes the accumulation of wealth, and what the role of an activist scholarship is in making these links visible. Readings will include the work of Black radical scholars as well as historical and ethnographic studies of the U.S. and global contexts-including discussions of plantation slavery, carceral capitalism, the 2008 mortgage crisis, and global labor migration.