Racism and Capitalism—Crisis and Resistance

Abstract

Understanding and opposing racist oppression in the world today requires analysis and clarification of the following: First, what is distinctive about racist oppression in all its forms, in contrast to other types of oppression; second, what are the dynamics and processes of economic exploitation underlying racist oppression in the world today; third, understanding who benefits and who is harmed by the perpetuation of racist oppression in society; and finally, understanding and resisting the traps that antiracists sometimes fall into by not taking the class relationships and class processes into account—sometimes falling into a kind of psychological determinism and leading to conclusions that erroneously locate less oppressed/somewhat advantaged groups as being fundamentally on the side of the oppressors. One strategy to overcome racist oppression in society necessitates an understanding of how antiracists sometimes fall into the trap of failing to understand how class relationships, class stratification processes, and capitalism in particular are today, basically, inseparable from racist oppression, and strategies to eliminate racist oppression must include the personal but must confront the structural power and class relationships that reinforce racist oppression.