Racial capitalism and anti-Blackness beyond the urban core

Abstract

ABSTRACT In this brief essay, I respond to Henry-Louis Taylor Jr.’s “The urban process and city building under racial capitalism.” First, I discuss the limits of situating the urban process as one squarely focused on city-building. Although a salient feature of the urban process, the urban here relates to processes of geographically expansive racialized urbanization versus one solely focused on Black marginality within cities. Second, I expand upon this distinction by underscoring how anti-Blackness extends beyond the urban core. Lastly, I offer a brief contrast between the thematic concepts of dispossession versus displacement used within our complementary frameworks. I end with a few remarks regarding the differences presented here as they relate to ongoing and future resistance efforts, arguing that anti-Blackness has always been confronted with Black people making space and place.