Mapping Theories of Racial Capitalism: From Necessity to Entanglement

The concept of “racial capitalism” has re-emerged in recent scholarly and political debates to theorize the role of racism in shaping capitalist social orders. It has been widely taken up by scholars and activists. The proliferating use of the concept, however, also poses challenges. Critics argue that it is often deployed without an explicit theorization of the relationship between capitalism and racism and is thus in danger of becoming an “empty signifier” or a “neutered academic object” that remains politically vacuous.1 In this essay, I take these critiques as a starting point. I argue that the concept of racial capitalism facilitates crucial political interventions by challenging Eurocentric accounts of capitalist modernity and making space for materialist accounts of racism. Nonetheless, critics who argue that the concept of racial capitalism remains under-theorized have a point. While a fully developed theory of racial capitalism may not exist yet, I argue that the recent literature on racial capitalism has produced important if incomplete theorizations of the relationship between racial orders and capitalism. I propose that there are three main ways in which the relationship has been conceptualized, namely, in terms of necessity, inextricability, and entanglement. I engage with the work of Gargi Bhattacharyya, Ruth Wilson Gilmore, Jodi Melamed, Nancy Fraser, Destin Jenkins, Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, and Michael Dawson to explicate these distinct conceptualizations, and to reflect on their political and theoretical implications.