Melamed On Racial Capitalism Summary

1) Melamed’s article on racial capitalism talks about how the economic structure of capitalism allowed the ideas that accompanies racism to permeate through it. She introduces this term, racial capitalism, as a way to recognize that capitalism has its racial upbringings. To further explain this terminology, we need to understand the concept of capitalism. Capitalism is build on the idea that the individual is responsible for generating his or her income. If someone wants to earn more, they would have to get educated, find a good paying job or start their own business. There would be little government intervention to help facilitate. But the key point that Melamed mentioned was that capitalism only applies when “capital is accumulating,” and
To go even further, she believes that ALL capitalism belongs in the broader category of racial capitalism. Melamed believes this because she was able to witness how society places people of certain races into groups/collections and people make assumptions about possible economic relationships that could occur as a result of these groups. In essence, after referencing Marx, the process of grouping people into categories based on certain criteria supposedly allows us to gauge his or her potential involvement in the economy. Melamed believes that although this seems easier, to “divide people from their social forces…to see in other men not the realization, but limitions…”, eventually, the idea of capitalism has its influence based on the racial backgrounds of individuals in