Racial Capitalism, Articulated Systems of Domination, and Democratic Crisis

• In Event: The Politics of Racial Capitalism

Abstract

Scholars who work on questions of race, gender, class and sexuality can no longer pretend that their disagreements have at most mild consequences for the real world. It is our responsibility to provide not only the best analyses of the multiple systems of domination that threatened multiple marginalized and oppressed communities, but to also link those analyses to programs of action to the degree possible. In that spirit I take this opportunity to critique two flawed approaches to the analysis of white supremacy and capitalism--that of some traditional Marxists and that of Afro-Pessimism. I use that critique to point toward a sounder approach—one that hopefully is useful for scholars and activists alike. Specifically, I propose a framework that has at its center the analysis of the articulation of three systems of domination--those of white supremacy, patriarchy and the capitalist social order.

Author

• Michael C. Dawson, University of Chicago