History of Racial Capitalism

3 Credits · Level: Graduate

This graduate readings course introduces students to the history of racial capitalism from its roots in Black radical thought to its present use in historical monographs. We will survey literature that centers the role of race, racialization, and racism as fundamental to economic exploitation and projects of capitalist extraction. Readings will constitute recent and classic works that demonstrate through distinct case studies how race shapes the pursuit and accumulation of wealth, how capitalism produces and exploits ethnoracial difference toward greater aims, the relationship between labor migrations and economic development, and how the material and built environment have been shaped by a nexus of race and value. This course will lean heavily toward a focus on North America in the 19th and 20th centuries, however, classroom discussions will consider various contexts for understanding global capitalism in relation to race-making and exploitative forms of othering. Readings will include historical monographs that converge with studies of the state, labor, race and ethnicity, immigration, urban history, and money, finance, and banking.