“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.
2. Black People Were the Original “Assets”
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.
3. Dehumanization Was Necessary for Profit
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.
4. Free Labor Built a Paid Economy
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.
5. Capitalism Rewards Extraction, Not Community
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.
6. Black Genius Was Exploited, Then Erased
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.
7. Reparations Were Paid—To Slaveholders
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.
8. Capitalism Reinvented Itself Through Jim Crow, Redlining, and Mass Incarceration
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. Private prisons, prison labor, and policing are all billion-dollar industries built on the same logic: extract value, devalue lives.
9. Consumerism Masquerades as Freedom
Today, we’re told to measure freedom through buying power. But owning Jordans or a luxury car is not economic liberation. Consumer culture feeds capitalism while leaving our communities underinvested.
Instead of reparations, we get advertisements. Our culture is monetized, but our communities are neglected. We are encouraged to buy symbols of success while being denied the structures that create it.
10. Communalism Is Our Indigenous Response
Before capitalism, we had systems rooted in shared labor, mutual aid, and reciprocity. African societies practiced communal farming, cooperative childcare, and resource sharing.
In the U.S., examples like Fannie Lou Hamer’s Freedom Farm Cooperative and the Black Panther Party’s free breakfast programs show what’s possible. These weren’t charity. They were resistance to capitalism’s violence.
To liberate ourselves, we must return to what our ancestors knew: the power is in the people, not the profit.
The Communalist Blueprint
Capitalism says we don’t have enough. Communalism proves that together, we have more than enough.
The Black Infrastructure Trust (BIT) model proves this. It’s not a theory — it’s a strategy. A living example of how Black people can pool small contributions into real, lasting infrastructure.
Imagine this:
- 11,000 Black people.
- Each gives $1 per week — $4 per month.
- That’s $44,000 a month. Over $500,000 in a year.
No grants. No banks. No strings.
Now imagine what we do with that:
- A childcare center that frees up working mothers.
- BIT members get free childcare.
- Non-members pay just $300/month — not $1,500 like the capitalist market demands.
This is communalism in motion. It relieves suffering and recruits new members. It supports the community and grows the movement.
And this is just the beginning.
Other possibilities include:
- A community-owned grocery store that provides fresh food and jobs.
- A cooperative housing project with rent capped for members.
- A solar energy farm that powers a neighborhood and reduces bills.
- A mental health and wellness center with culturally competent care.
- A technology hub that trains youth and launches Black-owned startups.
Each project serves dual purposes: meeting urgent needs and building sustainable infrastructure. Each one reduces dependence on exploitative systems. Each one plants a seed for self-determination.
The BIT Creed
There can be no healing without justice.
No justice without truth.
No truth without repair.
And no repair without reparations.
BIT is more than a financial model — it is a moral framework. A declaration that we will no longer wait for rescue. That we will no longer plead for crumbs. That we will no longer feed the systems that starve us.
We are the infrastructure. We are the investment. We are the inheritance.
Final Word:
“Black liberation will not come through reforming capitalism. It will come through rejecting it. This system wasn’t built for us—it was built on us. And we are still paying the price.”
But we have the power to change that. We must use the tools of this system—not to sustain it, but to dismantle it. To transition from exploitation to cooperation. From capitalism to communalism.
America owes us. And we owe it to our ancestors to collect that debt—not with assimilation, but with transformation. That future can only be built if we unite.”
You must be logged in to post a comment.