Black capitalism is not for ‘us’

baVulnerability is the primary issue when it comes to the Black community and capitalism. By definition, capitalism serves as the sourcing for labor and value that comes out of it. Slavery was the first instance of the wheel of capitalism going 360. Round and round in the realm of building white America off the backs of Black people. Observe the labor extracted from slaves, or the usage of Black sharecroppers in the Jim Crow era, to now. The withdrawal of Black communities in capitalism has roots in violence, and those roots continue to grow. 

The notion of “I’m rooting for everyone Black,” has been made to believe that one group out of 40 million Black people will “make it.” When we think of current Black “heroes” we turn to Jay-Z, who has a net worth of $1 billion according to Forbes. The current median income for a Black family of 4 is $45,438; Jay-Z’s success is thanks to the extraction of value from Black communities, at least that’s how it began. When Black communities link themselves to these outliers like Jay-Z, it fails to sustain an economy for all. Their business motives support and reward the upper class, not those beneath them. 

Then there’s the conversation of closing economic inequality in America. Yes, supporting Black businesses will always be a great opportunity to serve neighboring Black communities. Supporting Black is a myth in the fight of closing the racial inequality gap. Center for American Progress reports, “Black families have a fraction of the wealth white families have.” That leaves us economically more insecure and far fewer opportunities in relation to career mobility. Think about it in quarters. For every quarter a Black family obtains, white families already have two dollars. Not to say that buying Black is a bad thing. There’s cultural markers that prove that it’s vital for our community, but in the aspect of dismantling Black capitalism, it is small in comparison. How do we even attempt to close the gap, if the money isn’t even there? Buying Black won’t eradicate the system. It’s a band-aid to an oozing wound. 

American racism has set Black people back not only socially and mentally but economically speaking as well. Outliers are always going to exist, but it’s important to look at median and averages to combat this issue. Yes, there was a Black wall street, but think about the average Black person in any given decade. What was their median income, and was it higher than the average white person? The answer would most likely be no. The average Black dollar is a dollar that goes to paying bills, buying food, and paying rent. The money after that is little economic movement, but will not be enough in the aspect of defeating or reversing 400 years of slavery, or the 100 years Jim Crow left the community. 

If you look at our Black leaders from the civil rights era, most of them wanted to implement programs that guarantee Black people jobs. Heroes like W.E.B Dubois, Frederick Hampton, and Malcolm X were described as socialists. Not saying socialism is the answer to all things rooted in white supremacy, but how do we combat capitalism with Black capitalism? Simple, you cannot. Observe the resistance to American Capitalism, and you can see an increase in socialism, look at Bernie Sanders, a politician that could be described as a democratic socialist. Throughout all the avenues of economic systems, it’s keen to look above the horizon and have a strong focus on anti-racism. The goal is to find an economic entity not birthed from racism, but can provide economic freedom for Black people.

It’s up to white Americans to educate themselves on this country and to reverse the harm that has been done. The responsibility of finding an economic system should not be the burden of Black communities. We were forced to build this country off of hard labor, and have not received anything back from it. If America wants to see any of the racial equality that they promote in their marketing campaigns, then they need to dismantle the whole system.

But they will not dismantle any of the economic systems that they benefit from. They award a select few from our community and we’re supposed to accept that. Sad, but it’s the truth. Black capitalism will not save us unless we dismantle it as a whole.