Capitalism was developed for white men by white men. The black man was never the intended beneficiary of capitalism, other than as either slave or servant. Whilst the Virginians in Jamestown, the Puritans in Massachusetts Bay, the Quakers in Pennsylvania and other early settlers of what later became the United States all brought with them elements of capitalism, it was meant to produce wealth and well-being for themselves. The Transatlantic Slave Trade may be seen as the ‘colonisation’ of the bodies, time, intelligence, skills and labour hours of a nation (3-6 million) of black people for the sole enrichment and enjoyment of white people and white business. In other words, black people have always been seen as tools, albeit necessary ones for the advancement of the white man’s interests, read, in the interests of capitalism. It was after all, the Royal African Company that stole, bought, bartered and brought African people to the Americas, perhaps as many as 18 million.
The beauty of the discovery or invention of democracy, a legal system of fairness and equity for all men is probably the greatest single triumph of mankind, next to advances in the medical sciences, but even the much vaunted American constitution wasn’t written with black people in mind. So I argue that for at least 250-years, the constitution of the United States benefitted and protected white people at the explicit expense of black people. This is quantifiable and empirically provable on the grounds of the inestimable differences in wealth and resources between black and white, a legacy that lingers to this day. The bitterest irony of the existing wealth disparities in America is that black people have contributed more to the generation of wealth for white people and white business than all the genius of white people combined. Walter Rodney, the Guyanese historian, political activist and academic, in his seminal 1972 book, “How Europe Underdeveloped Africa” claims that for every 20 pounds circulating in the English economy during the industrial revolution, 1-pound can be traced to wealth generated by slave-owners.
The institution of slavery and the free wealth it created for the early colonies, the wealthy and the landed class, generated a conservative $3 billion in wealth at that time, turning cotton into the single most valuable international commodity and slaves into the most valuable asset in the world. The pathology of free black labour was so entrenched into the American national social and business psyche, that the creation of the minimum wage was a natural extension, unsurprisingly sold to the masses of people as ‘fair and equitable?’ Imagine being told that accepting a ‘minimum wage’ is normal, does that make any kind of sense? But, then again, does the preferred economic system, known as ‘Capitalism’ not self-describe? Why for instance, if it cannot do without labour, isn’t it called, ‘Labour?’ it seems to me that the wanton accumulation of capital at the expense of people, their livelihoods, their health and our environment is the sole and only purpose of capitalism, and it provides for all to see that it is unashamed of its intentions, because it is called, Capitalism.
Think of it this way, more than 1-million laws, statutes and ordinances were written in Europe, the Americas, Oceana and large parts of Africa over a few centuries, many involving black people, yet none specifically written in their favour…
