Histories of Racial Capitalism, Justin Leroy Destin Jenkins

Livre en anglais.

The relationship between race and capitalism is one of the most enduring and controversial historical debates. The concept of racial capitalism offers a way out of this impasse. Racial capitalism is not simply a permutation, phase, or stage in the larger history of capitalism—since the beginning of the Atlantic slave trade and the colonization of the Americas, capitalism, in both material and ideological senses, has been racial, deriving social and economic value from racial classification and stratification. Although Cedric J. Robinson popularized the term, racial capitalism has remained undertheorized for nearly four decades. 

Histories of Racial Capitalism brings together for the first time distinguished and rising scholars to consider the utility of the concept across historical settings. These scholars offer dynamic accounts of the relationship between social relations of exploitation and the racial terms through which they were organized, justified, and contested. Deploying an eclectic array of methods, their works range from indigenous mortgage foreclosures to the legacies of Atlantic-world maroons, from imperial expansion in the continental United States and beyond to the racial politics of municipal debt in the New South, from the ethical complexities of Latinx banking to the postcolonial dilemmas of extraction in the Caribbean. Throughout, the contributors consider and challenge how some claims about the history and nature of capitalism are universalized while others remain marginalized. By theorizing and testing the concept of racial capitalism in different historical circumstances, this book shows its analytical and political power for today’s scholars and activists.

Who is Destin Jenkins

Destin Jenkins is the Neubauer Family Assistant Professor of History at the University of Chicago. He is the author of The Bonds of Inequality: Debt and the Making of the American City (2021).
Justin Leroy is assistant professor of history and codirector of the Mellon Research Initiative on Racial Capitalism at the University of California, Davis.

Remarquable

Le livre "Histories of Racial Capitalism" de Justin Leroy et Destin Jenkins est considéré comme remarquable pour plusieurs raisons :

• Analyse approfondie et extension du concept : Il réunit des chercheurs renommés et émergents pour explorer le concept de "capitalisme racial" dans divers contextes historiques et en éclairer l’utilité. Les contributions offrent des représentations dynamiques de la relation entre les relations d’exploitation et les termes raciaux par lesquels elles ont été organisées, justifiées et contestées.

• Pertinence analytique et politique : Le livre démontre la puissance analytique et politique du concept de capitalisme racial pour les chercheurs et activistes d'aujourd'hui. Il contribue à développer une compréhension plus profonde de l'interdépendance entre capitalisme et racisme.

• Contribution significative à la recherche : Décrit comme une publication "urgemment nécessaire", il fournit suffisamment de preuves que le terme de capitalisme racial est précieux et qu'il perdurera. Il approfondit le débat sur l'application et la signification du concept.

• Perspective globale : L'essai met en lumière des exemples critiques de la manière dont "le racisme est devenu une force matérielle d'accumulation" et traite de la façon dont le capitalisme différencie les populations plutôt que d'homogénéiser les relations sociales.