Capitalism: The Unseen Root of Racial Inequality

The concept of racism goes beyond the notion of simply being prejudice towards a group of people due to skin color. But while this is a component racism historically is a product of capitalism. This introduced when a capitalist employs a racial ideology to keep labor and resources easily exploitable. For this to be manageable capitalist had to create a dynamic that weakened the working class. Ways that the bourgeoisie class did this was by inventing the “white” race which resulted in a divide and conquer mechanism. With dividing and conquering the working class it resulted in the loss of solidarity between black and white workers . The capitalists made it seem that the real problem that poor whites had was their fellow black workers. This idea aided to maintain the notion white supremacy. White supremacy that was cultivated by the capitalist produced a cycle of racial inequality that remained over time.

The origin of racism stems from the enslavement of African Americans being the easier solution of breaking up Bacon’s rebellion by enslaving blacks and freeing whites.

Before capitalism there was no evidence of people being discriminated on by their race this proves that racism is directly linked to capitalism. So why does a capitalist construct the notion of white supremacy resulting in the creation of the white race? Cox states, “The capitalist exploiter will utilize any convenience to keep his labor and other resources freely exploitable”(Cox, pg 10). To sum it up it’s all about making a profit the most easiest and cheapest way