Racial Capitalism is alive and thriving in the United States, as well as almost everywhere in the world.  Tracing its roots back to the so-called voyages of discovery; i.e. Europeans “discovering”, conquering and enslaving non-white people around the world;  racial capitalism turns humans, most notably non-white humans, into chattel.  

     Capitalism actually does this to all humans which is evidenced by the fact that corporations see humans as “resources”. I don’t want this fact to redirect our focus from the desperate need to address racial capitalism which has always plagued the US, but I believe that by looking at how capitalism works in a broader generalized population we  can better understand its place in racial capitalism. 

     The definition of resource is “a stock or supply of money, materials, staff and other assets . . . .”  Right in this definition, which is an internet definition but no different than any you are going to find anywhere, you see people listed as “assets”.  If you look up asset you will find that asset might mean being of value, as in “she is an asset to the team.”  You also find that it means “property owned by a person or company, regarded as having value and available to meet debts, commitents or legacies.”  Oh, my!!  If a resource is an asset and an asset is property it follows that a resource is property and therefore you and I are all property of our employer and/or government.  Does that make you feel good?

     Now let’s apply this to Racial Capitalism. For the white population our only awareness of being a resource is that we’re getting poorer while the capitalist is getting richer. It is impossible for a white person to fathom how this plays out for non-white citizens, but consider this scenario: you’re driving through a wealthy neighborhood and see a black man mowing the grass. How many people are going to assume that he’s the gardener or an employee?  Be honest. Even if you don’t think of yourself as a racist, how many of you would make the same assumption. Are you surprised to find that it is his home?  

     In an Antipode Foundation video, which can be found on YouTube and is well worth watching (i),  entitled Geographies of Racial Capitalism, Professor Ruth Wilson Gilmore points out that racism, slavery and capitalism go hand in hand.  Our beloved capitalism developed and survives  by the exploitation of people, especially non-white people. 

     If that isn’t bad enough, according to the founder of Fascism, Benito Mussolini, when you combine capitalism and government you get Fascism. (ii)  What was the result of Citizens United versus the Federal Election Commission? (iii) Ah, that’s right. It permits wealthy capitalists and their corporations to put as much money into a political campaign as they wish.  Now we have our politicians legally crawling into bed with the capitalists. Oh, my!  What did Mussolini say?  Fascism is the merger of capitalism and government. That means we have . . . dare I say it? . . . fascism right here in the USA.    

     Oh, but there’s more.  While racial capitalism exploits non-white citizens, our government – most specifically the president – has continually made the hatred and mistreatment of non-white citizens a matter of patriotism.  Is it no wonder that a non-white journalist was arrested in Minneapolis while his white colleague was not. 

     Nancy Leong, in her 2013 article on Racial Capitalism in the Harvard Law Review, concluded  “One colleague  with  whom  I discussed this project observed that being a person of color within  an institution means that  “you’re going to get used,” and that the best  and only response is to  make sure you get as much as possible in return.  But my own view  is that racial capitalism is not inevitable.  Ending racial capitalism  may take a great  deal of effort across generations, but in the end  I think it can happen.”  (v)  I wish that I could be as optimistic, but we must put every effort into making it happen starting with holding our government accountable and ending fascism (government + capitalism). 

FOOT NOTES: 

(i)   https://antipodeonline.org/geographies-of-racial-capitalism/

(ii)  Mussolini, Benito and Giovanni Gentile. (1932). La dottrina del fascismo [the doctrine of fascism]. Enciclopedia Italiana. 

(iii)  https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/citizens-united-explained

(iv)  https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.forbes.com/sites/danabrownlee/2020/05/29/was-a-cnn-reporter-arrested-by-minnesota-patrol-for-working-while-black/amp/

(v)  Loeng, Nancy. Racial capitalism. Harvard Law Review. Vol 126 Issue 8. June 2013. p. 2226. 

Once I had a dream for this country.  Once I actually believed that we were on our way to being a truly great nation.  Once I had a dream.  Now that dream has turned into a nightmare and all I want is for our country to survive the tirades, anger, and hateful destructive acts of the incoherently ranting narcissistic madman who occupies the White House.  This essay was slated for publication the middle of next week.  Then came a night of unprovoked federal violence in the city of Portland, OR. 

     Last night – the evening of 7/16/2020 – I started reading accounts of unidentified “federal agents” running amuck in Portland. By the morning of 7/17/2020, it had been confirmed by reputable sources; Washington Post and Oregon Public Broadcasting being two principal reporters; that the unmarked military-like men were a part of the Department of Homeland Security. (i)  They had been sent by our current Administration without the request of the local government, which had jurisdiction. In fact, Oregon authorities asked the White House to remove the federal troops (ii) that had taken a peaceful protest and turned it into chaos, violating the civil right of untold numbers of people and seriously injuring at least one whose skull was fractured by a “non-lethal” weapon. Donald Trump’s brown shirts had struck again. (iii)

     How did we get into this predicament? Fascism is quite insidious.  I know that I have explained its origins in some of my earlier essays, but, for the sake of those who have not read those essays and may not know the history, let’s quickly review.  In 1932 the Enciclopedia Italiana published a thirty-seven page essay by Benito Mussolini and an Italian philosopher, Giovanni Gentile, entitled La dotrina del fascismo  (The doctrine of fascism.) Mussolini is considered the father of fascism.  In that essay Mussolini explains how fascism is the merger of corporate and government power. Mussolini wrote, “We control political forces, we control moral forces we control economic forces, therefore we are a full-blown Corporative state.” The most chilling was  “We stand for a new principle in the world, we stand for sheer, categorical, definitive antithesis to the world of democracy,…” (iv)  If one studies the history of Italy and Germany we see that both Mussolini and Hitler worked the existing political systems.  They played on the less educated and struggling person’s nationalism, telling them that they were going to make Italy and Germany great world powers again. Extreme nationalism is the villainous key to every dictator’s success. By the time the common people get over the nationalistic high and realize that they’ve been duped, it’s too late. They’ve created a dictator. As Mussolini and Hitler solidified their political power, more educated and intellectual citizens, who believed in their system of government, honestly believed “it can’t happen here.”  Oh, how wrong they were.  

     Vitally important to the success of any fascist take-over is the under-educated common person who at least feels like they’re struggling and/or being abused by the government system.  The would be dictator uses this group, promises them to make their country “great again”, and gets them to willingly participate in their own destruction.  They become the fascist state’s first victims.  

    Lyndon Johnson started out as a good-ole-boy southern politician. He knew how to work the voters.  It is ironic that he turned out to be the President under whom some of the most powerful and important civil rights legislation took place.  The story goes, as told by Bill Moyers, a member of Johnson’s staff, that Johnson was in Nashville and noticed some racial signs as their motorcade drove through town.  Later at the hotel, after all of the good ole boys had finished Johnson’s branch water and whiskey and gone home, Johnson explained how the southern politician controlled the racist, ignorant population.   “I’ll tell you what’s at the bottom of it.  If you can convince the lowest white man he’s better than the best colored man, he won’t notice you’re picking his pocket.  Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he’ll empty his pockets for you.” (v)   We’ve seen that used recently, haven’t we? 

     How can people fall for this?  Why do people continue to follow Trump when it is evident to the entire world that he is mentally unstable and using them to further his own wealth and power?  Those really aren’t as hard a question as you’d think. These people fall into one of three scenario: (a) they are desperate not to believe the truth because they feel their lives are desperate and they truthfully believe that Trump’s fantasy is better than their reality; (b) they are ashamed to admit that they’ve been duped. I think we have a lot of Senators and members of Congress in this group; and (c) they are actually gullible enough to believe his lies.  Our biggest problem with these three is that there is no logic or power on Earth that is going to dissuade them. 

     We’ve all seen the quote attributed to Sinclair Lewis. “When fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in a flag and carrying a cross.”   We have seen the truth of that statement but  Sinclair Lewis never said it. (vi)  He said some far more important things. In 1935, Lewis published the novel It Can’t Happen Here. (vii)  The premise of the book was that a fascist dictatorship can happen here. The main character, Buzz Windrip, appealed to voters with his crass language, nativist ideology and super nationalism.  He defeats Franklin Roosevelt and becomes President. After being elected he started solidifying his power by promoting violence and anger toward immigrants, people on welfare and the liberal press. 

     There is no doubt that fascism has come to the United States.  We, by the strictest definition of the term, are a fascist state.  Donald Trump has brought capitalism into government in such a way that the control is almost absolute. Absolute control is, of course, his goal.  Radical fundamentalist Christianity has joined this horrific union for benefits which I shall perhaps address in some future essay. Suffice it to say, they have something to offer; viz. religious control over a large group of people.  Their reward is to be the official religion of the new order.  Trump is trying to silence the free press by calling it the “enemy of the people”. That’s a common phrase among dictators. He works very hard to attempt to discredit intellectuals or other independent thinkers by labeling us unAmerican or elitist and attacking us personally.   

     In a June 2020 essay entitled “One more step toward totalitarianism” (viii) I reviewed twelve twentieth century dictators, arrived at nine common practices, and compared those to Donald Trump.  The nine common practices are: attacking the press, having someone to hate and blame, promise to make the country great again (super-nationalism), attack intellectuals, commit human rights violations, practice and promote political persecution, nepotism, corruption, and economic mismanagement. 

     Once I had a dream for this country.  Once I actually believed that we were on our way to being a truly great nation.  Once I had a dream.  Now that dream has turned into a nightmare and all I want is for our country to survive the tirades, anger, and hateful destructive acts of the incoherently ranting narcissistic madman who occupies the White House.  If we can have a fair election, and if he is defeated, my fear is that we will not get him out of the White House without him inciting his followers to extreme violence.  

FOOTNOTES: 

(i)  Washington Post. 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/07/17/portland-protests-federal-arrests/

(ii)   https://www.wweek.com/news/2020/07/16/oregon-gov-kate-brown-says-president-trump-is-invading-portland-as-an-election-stunt/    and  https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/07/13/portland-protester-injured-federal/

(iii)  https://www.historyhit.com/hitlers-bullyboys-the-role-of-the-sa-in-nazi-germany/

Hitler formed SA in Munich in 1921, drawing membership from violent anti-leftist and anti-democratic former soldiers in order to lend muscle to the young Nazi Party. Recognisable by their brown uniforms, similar to those of Mussolini’s Blackshirts, the SA functioned as a ‘security’ force at Nazi rallies and meetings, using threats and outright violence to secure votes and overcome Hitler’s political enemies.

(iv)  Mussolini, Benito and Giovanni Gentile. (1932). La Dotrina del fascismo. Enciclopedia Italiana.  Footnote 16.   http://www.worldfuturefund.org/wffmaster/Reading/Germany/mussolini.htm

(v)  Moyers,  Bill. (11/13/1988). “What a real President was like: To Lyndon Johnson, the Great Society meant hope and dignity.”  The Washington Post. 

(vi)  https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/sinclair-lewis-on-fascism/

(vii)  Lewis, Sinclair. (1935). It can’t happen here.  New York.  Doubleday, Doran & Co. T

(viii)   https://oldconservationist.blogspot.com/2020/06/one-more-step-toward-totalitarianism.html

 Some of us still remember the 1960s when millions of us took the the streets of Washington D.C. and other major cities to protest social inequalities and the war in Viet Nam. I was in Washington for two of the biggest.  We took to the streets because, in the 1960s, politicians at least acted like they cared and ultimately gave in to the will of the people. 

     More than once in the years I have been blogging and writing about environmental and other issues, I’ve had readers reply with the idea that we need to take to the streets again.  I have absolutely no problem with that. In fact, the more people in the streets the greater the evidence that a majority of people do not like what the Washington Swamp is doing and want change.  I cheer every time students walk out of school or show up at a capital en masse.   They know it is their future that we are destroying.   BUT … you knew that ‘but’ was coming, didn’t you? … we all know that politicians no longer need to appear to work for the people or care what the people feel, think, want, etc.  Especially since the Citizens United decision politicians do not need to appeal to the people. There is absolutely no doubt that the majority of politicians are controlled by mega-corporations because the corporations give them millions of dollars to get elected.  Would you “bite the hand that feeds you”, i.e. the one who keeps you rich and employed? 

     In the 1960s it was still almost embarrassing for a politician to admit that they wanted to make politics their life-time occupation. We still lived under the delusion that going to Congress was a public service which entailed some degree of sacrifice. I well remember the first political science major I met at a large Midwestern university who was bold enough to say that, for them, college was preparation for becoming a life-long politician.  Suddenly public service had become an occupation and the politician was in a position of ‘doing-what-was-necessary’ to keep their job. With Citizens United they soon forgot for whom they were supposedly working.  Elections soon became totally about who had the most money – which was always relatively true – and not about issues. 

     I’m not going to try to address election reform, but we must realize that our real battle is going to take place inside a courtroom.  When you start deciding which environment or social-issue organization you are going to support I recommend that you check out their legal department.   Do they have attorneys with excellent success rates?   What’s their win ratio against the government?  While there are many fine organizations which deserve our support, we must realize that we need to put the bulk of our meager funds into organizations that can beat the government in court.  Until we can get rid of Citizens United, this is the best for which we can hope. 

     Racial Capitalism is alive and thriving in the United States, as well as almost everywhere in the world.  Tracing its roots back to the so-called voyages of discovery; i.e. Europeans “discovering”, conquering and enslaving non-white people around the world;  racial capitalism turns humans, most notably non-white humans, into chattel.  

     Capitalism actually does this to all humans which is evidenced by the fact that corporations see humans as “resources”. I don’t want this fact to redirect our focus from the desperate need to address racial capitalism which has always plagued the US, but I believe that by looking at how capitalism works in a broader generalized population we  can better understand its place in racial capitalism. 

     The definition of resource is “a stock or supply of money, materials, staff and other assets . . . .”  Right in this definition, which is an internet definition but no different than any you are going to find anywhere, you see people listed as “assets”.  If you look up asset you will find that asset might mean being of value, as in “she is an asset to the team.”  You also find that it means “property owned by a person or company, regarded as having value and available to meet debts, commitents or legacies.”  Oh, my!!  If a resource is an asset and an asset is property it follows that a resource is property and therefore you and I are all property of our employer and/or government.  Does that make you feel good?

     Now let’s apply this to Racial Capitalism. For the white population our only awareness of being a resource is that we’re getting poorer while the capitalist is getting richer. It is impossible for a white person to fathom how this plays out for non-white citizens, but consider this scenario: you’re driving through a wealthy neighborhood and see a black man mowing the grass. How many people are going to assume that he’s the gardener or an employee?  Be honest. Even if you don’t think of yourself as a racist, how many of you would make the same assumption. Are you surprised to find that it is his home?  

     In an Antipode Foundation video, which can be found on YouTube and is well worth watching (i),  entitled Geographies of Racial Capitalism, Professor Ruth Wilson Gilmore points out that racism, slavery and capitalism go hand in hand.  Our beloved capitalism developed and survives  by the exploitation of people, especially non-white people. 

     If that isn’t bad enough, according to the founder of Fascism, Benito Mussolini, when you combine capitalism and government you get Fascism. (ii)  What was the result of Citizens United versus the Federal Election Commission? (iii) Ah, that’s right. It permits wealthy capitalists and their corporations to put as much money into a political campaign as they wish.  Now we have our politicians legally crawling into bed with the capitalists. Oh, my!  What did Mussolini say?  Fascism is the merger of capitalism and government. That means we have . . . dare I say it? . . . fascism right here in the USA.    

     Oh, but there’s more.  While racial capitalism exploits non-white citizens, our government – most specifically the president – has continually made the hatred and mistreatment of non-white citizens a matter of patriotism.  Is it no wonder that a non-white journalist was arrested in Minneapolis while his white colleague was not. 

     Nancy Leong, in her 2013 article on Racial Capitalism in the Harvard Law Review, concluded  “One colleague  with  whom  I discussed this project observed that being a person of color within  an institution means that  “you’re going to get used,” and that the best  and only response is to  make sure you get as much as possible in return.  But my own view  is that racial capitalism is not inevitable.  Ending racial capitalism  may take a great  deal of effort across generations, but in the end  I think it can happen.”  (v)  I wish that I could be as optimistic, but we must put every effort into making it happen starting with holding our government accountable and ending fascism (government + capitalism). 

FOOT NOTES: 

(i)   https://antipodeonline.org/geographies-of-racial-capitalism/

(ii)  Mussolini, Benito and Giovanni Gentile. (1932). La dottrina del fascismo [the doctrine of fascism]. Enciclopedia Italiana. 

(iii)  https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/citizens-united-explained

(iv)  https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.forbes.com/sites/danabrownlee/2020/05/29/was-a-cnn-reporter-arrested-by-minnesota-patrol-for-working-while-black/amp/

(v)  Loeng, Nancy. Racial capitalism. Harvard Law Review. Vol 126 Issue 8. June 2013. p. 2226. 

   The world is trying desperately to deal with racism and white supremacy but the more we listen to those who have suffered from white supremacist racism (WSR) for centuries the more we realize that we have a daunting task ahead of us.  I recently changed my Facebook page ‘Studying the Hunter-Gatherer‘, which was a research page, to an advocacy page for HG, indigenous people and all people of color who have and are suffering from WSR.  My current idea of support is to study questions about the history and practice of WSR.  As an undergrad historian and philosopher, (i) I truly believe that we can learn from history. Understanding the history can help us know the best attack. Why do you think that professional sports teams spend so much time studying game films?  Knowing what happened – history – can identify an opponents’ weaknesses and/or help one avoid making the same mistake again. 

     For me, in our current crisis,  looking at the game film; i.e. studying the history of WSR;  is an important step.  I can’t blame people of color (POC), which is basically the entire world except those of European ancestry, for boiling over and demanding immediate action. They deserve it. Nevertheless, acting too hastily can result in laws that are passed just for show, have no teeth and are about as good as the Indian peace treaties the US government has made over the years and subsequently broken.  I’m not advocating for slowing down or backing off!!  Quite the contrary.  We just need to make sure that we have a game plan that will not only bring some quick success and relief as well as success that will endure backlash and last for perpetuity.  Besides the fact that most people have neither the patience nor the desire to do this type of research,  I’m seventy-four years old and people like me don’t have the physical ability to hit the streets like I did in the 1960s.  

     I believe that the first, and perhaps biggest question is “how did the white colonialist overcome all these people?” -OR- “what is the origin of WSR?”  We know the Europeans weren’t smarter.  Europe was just coming out of a period of great superstition and ignorance while their POC neighbors, in what is now the Middle East, were the keepers of knowledge in what we call the western world and Asians had successful, sophisticated medical systems. The Asians had gunpowder long before the Europeans. Some native tribes in North America had been successfully practicing pure democracy (ii) for centuries before the white colonialist.  What happened?  

     We know that the white Europeans believed themselves superior and so treated others with total disregard and inhumanity.  I think we see that that is still true of the modern WSR. This belief can be translated into a total lack of concern for the effects of their behavior.  In other words, early colonialists might smile sweetly at the indigenous person while another colonialist stabs the indigenous person in the back.  Do you think that the modern WSR would do this?  You can bet on it.  Andrew Jackson told many stories about the horrible, bloody, ruthless behavior of the Indians.  He was actually describing his own behavior and that of other white people but, to turn the unsuspecting and naive US citizen against the natives, he attributed his behavior to his victims.  The white historical account of Lt. Col George Custer’s defeat at the Battle of the Greasy Grass; the native name for what whites call the Battle of Little Bighorn; was called a massacre and an appalling example of Indian savagery. This is what appears in many school books. Thankfully historians aren’t going to be put off. If you read the whole story, the true story, you find that Custer had just slaughtered a village of women, children and elderly, and that wasn’t the first such slaughter. Whites tried to rewrite history. There were, and probably still are, those who tried to make slavery look good; depicting the southern plantation as a comfortable, happy life and ignoring the reality of being chained and dragged from their homes in Africa, of being bred and sold at auction, and being whipped at their owner’s discretion, and much more. Do you think that the modern WSR would resort to such lying?  You’d better believe it.  Colonialist, which include the so-called pioneers, had no qualms about murdering native women, children and elderly, and as a result the saying “the only good injun is a dead injun” (iv) made its way into the twentieth century western movie. Speaking of movies, for decades the black slave was little more than a simpleton, and people of color were almost always the bad guys.

     These are just a few of the behaviors and issues which I can tell about without having to go do research.  As the son of an historian and a history major myself as an undergrad, these are facts that I’ve always known.  These are the facts, coupled with personal experience, (iii) which made my Father and me the protagonist of the WSR.  It is written in the Cambridge English Corpus (iv) that “All good protagonists require a formidable foe,…”  We have that in the WSR.  Our efforts and the results of the 1960s civil rights campaign were good, but only a good start.  They have proven to lack the strength to survive much more of the modern WSR attack. Looking back and thinking about the blatant racism that still exists, I think we failed to cut off the head of the evil serpent.  

     In J.R.R. Tolkien’s 1937 novel “The Hobbit“, Bilbo Baggins crept into the lair of the evil dragon, Smaug, and discovered the weak spot in the dragon’s armor.  Until then the dragon was invincible.  Until now WSR has given indication of invincibility.  While people are still manning the front-lines of the everyday battle, I propose that we dedicate some serious brainpower to finding the weak links in the WSR armor and exploiting them for the good of all.  

FOOTNOTES.

(i)   I did history and philosophy as an undergraduate. Even though I ended up a psychotherapist, these are still subjects important to me.

(ii)  pure democracy is where everyone in the community, males and females, had equal say in the community decisions. There were no “representatives” and the chief was often selected by the people and subject to their demands.  Read  Hudson, Charles (1976).  The Southeastern Indians.  Knoxville. University of Tennessee Press.

(iv)  This saying can be traced back to General Philip Sheridan, 1869, when he replied to Comanche  chief Tochaway’s statement about being a good Indian by saying “the only good Indians I ever saw were dead.”  Racism. WSR

(iv)  The Cambridge English Corpus is a multi-billion word corpus of English language (containing both text corpus and spoken corpus data). The Cambridge English Corpus (CEC) contains data from a number of sources including written and spoken, British and American English.