“Capitalism didn’t fail Black people. It targeted Black people.”

1.Slavery Was Not a Flaw—It Was a Feature

Slavery wasn’t a bug in the system of capitalism; it was the engine that drove it. From the 1600s to the 1800s, the transatlantic slave trade was essential to building the wealth of Europe and the Americas. Cotton, sugar, tobacco, and rice—all labor-intensive crops that built global empires—were cultivated by enslaved Africans.

The plantation system represented one of the first large-scale, profit-driven industrial enterprises, and enslaved people were its unpaid workforce. Major corporations, such as Lloyd’s of London (insurance) and JP Morgan Chase (banking), have roots tied directly to slavery. Capitalism didn’t run despite slavery; it was shaped by it.

Black people were legally defined as property and traded as commodities. Our value was tracked on balance sheets. A healthy enslaved African man could sell for more than a piece of land. Enslaved women were bred to increase stock. Children were collateral for loans.

Thomas Jefferson mortgaged enslaved people to finance Monticello. New Orleans banks used enslaved Africans as backing for securities. Black people weren’t just producing wealth—we were the wealth being extracted.

To justify such violence and exploitation, enslaved Africans were painted as subhuman. The lie of racial inferiority allowed white society to square its Christian morals with its capitalist interests.

This psychological warfare persists. Even today, systems of mass incarceration and police brutality rely on the same logic: devalue Black life to maintain control. Dehumanization wasn't an unfortunate side effect. It was a deliberate tool for maintaining a profitable status quo.

Enslaved labor fueled entire industries: cotton for textiles, sugar for rum, tobacco for trade. By 1860, the market value of enslaved Africans in the U.S. was greater than all the factories and railroads combined.

Wall Street itself has its roots in slave auctions. The financing of slavery created America’s financial systems. Today’s wealthy white families and institutions often owe their start to that stolen labor. The profits were passed down. The pain was not.

Capitalism thrives by taking more than it gives. It demands profit above people. From the enclosure of common land in Europe to the forced displacement of Indigenous people in the Americas, capitalism requires that land, labor, and life be commodified.

Black communities that try to practice mutual aid and collective ownership are seen as threats. Whether it was Tulsa in 1921, MOVE in 1985, or cooperative farms targeted during Reconstruction, Black community-building is often met with violence.

We were not just laborers—we were innovators. Africans brought agricultural knowledge that helped cultivate the American South. Enslaved Africans developed rice cultivation techniques in the Carolinas. We built irrigation systems, healing practices, and architecture.

George Washington Carver revolutionized soil science. Benjamin Banneker designed Washington, D.C. Our minds have always been brilliant, but our contributions were stolen, uncredited, or suppressed for white gain.

In 1833, Britain ended slavery and paid £20 million (about $25 billion today) to enslavers for their "losses." The U.S. paid reparations to loyal slaveholders in Washington, D.C., but Black people received nothing. No land. No capital. No restitution.

The promised "40 acres and a mule" was never delivered. Meanwhile, white landowners received subsidies, grants, and GI bills. Black people were locked out of the very mechanisms of wealth creation their labor built.

After slavery, capitalism didn't stop targeting Black people—it adapted. Sharecropping kept Black farmers in debt and servitude. Redlining excluded us from home ownership. Discriminatory lending and wage gaps persist.

The prison-industrial complex now profits from Black bodies once again.