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“Never in the history of America have white people actually participated in a free market.” Michael Harriot refutes the theory that slavery was rooted in capitalism. He analyzes real estate, education, and entertainment to explain why white people have never been a part of free-market capitalism.
Full Transcript Below:
Announcer [00:00:00] You are now listening to theGrio’s Black Podcast Network, Black Culture Amplified.
Michael Harriot [00:00:05] So I was having a conversation the other day about a famous historical figure, Mary Ellen Pleasant, woman who was almost a billionaire in the 1800s. But this podcast is not about that. The person said that he wanted to be careful in how they talked about Mary Ellen Pleasant because they don’t want to elevate the ideas of capitalism. And I asked the person “why?,” and they said, “Capitalism gave us slavery. Capitalism gave us Jim Crow.” And I stopped them and said, “well, did it, though?” and she asked me what I meant. And that’s why I want to welcome you to theGrio Daily. The only podcast that will ask the question, Is capitalism really that bad?
Michael Harriot [00:00:50] Yeah. So we all heard the famous and perhaps kind of trendy critiques of capitalism. It is at the root of slavery. It is at the root of white supremacy. But a lot of times we make those critiques, not understanding what capitalism is. So I want to kind of go into this because I have this theory and I’ve had it for a long time. I used to teach it, that the majority of white people, the white people who perpetuate inequality, white supremacy, they are not in favor of capitalism. They are in theory. But the reason that they are not in favor of capitalism in real life is because white people have never participated in capitalism. Well, what do I mean? Well, to understand what I mean, you have to start at the beginning. So let’s ask ourselves, what is capitalism? Capitalism is an economic system where the means of production, where property is controlled by private individuals or entities. And what I mean by entities, because it’s not always people. Corporations are technically constructed as almost people or entities that can control and own property and goods. One of the things that is synonymous with capitalism is a free market.
Michael Harriot [00:02:17] In other words, a free market is the competition of ownership production that is not manipulated by the government or outside forces. White people love to talk about the free market, especially like six-foot tall white guys who call themselves libertarian, oh they love the idea of capitalism. They love the idea of a free market economy. They hate regulation, government control, that’s why they don’t want the government to, for instance, enact legislation that stops corporations from polluting or legislation that stops monopolies. In other words, they really believe that only competition should determine what can happen in a market or an economy. And that long winded explanation is necessary to understand why capitalism has never existed in America, especially as it relates to racism, slavery, and the history of Black people in America.
Michael Harriot [00:03:20] So let’s go into it. First of all, what do we mean by when I say capitalism never existed? Well, think about slavery. A lot of people attribute the pervasiveness and the how long we’ve been enslaving people in America to capitalism. And in a sense, that is kind of correct. Black people were deemed property because of the ideas of capitalism, but slavery was not a free market. Slavery was a government program. It was enforced by the government. The Constitution of the United States didn’t just protect slave owners or regulate the market. It required the people who didn’t participate in slavery or other states to be slave catchers. It required them to participate in the regulation of private property. It was not a free market. Slave laws, Black codes. None of that was part of a free market. It was part of a government manipulation of the market to ensure that white people maintained control. It was a form of socialism. The government is protecting your property. The means of production wasn’t just enforced by the government. It was owned by the government. If the government shares in the profit by taxing human property, by enforcing the laws in their part owners. In a sense, slavery was a socialist program. It was a government handout that ensured that white people would maintain control. Because if it is true in states like South Carolina and Mississippi, for instance, that were majority Black, those slaves could have easily revolted and overturned that system of race based human subjugation and trafficking. But because they were in an industry or a market that was regulated by the government that told them that they were property, they could not. They couldn’t run away because even if they go to a free state, the government controlled that market, so slavery was not a free market. Slavery was not capitalism.
Michael Harriot [00:05:31] Even after slavery. Think about Jim Crow, right? Jim Crow enforced segregation laws and gave white people the benefit of property ownership by reducing the competition. Black people couldn’t buy homes, for instance, in a white neighborhood. So the real estate market was affected by Jim Crow. It was a socialist government program even before Jim Crow. Right. You think about the head right system. We’ve talked about it before on this podcast. But for a brief explanation, even before America began, the English government gave people land 50 acres for every slave they owned. So we’ve never been in a free market. A lot of the generational wealth that was built at the beginning of America. Thomas Jefferson’s homestead, Monticello, for instance, was acquired, in part, through these what they call land grants. Same thing with the place where the Constitution was written. Montpelier, where James Madison wrote the Constitution, and that was land grant land. His family acquired it through government handouts. And even when you look at, for instance, the entire state of Georgia was a place where they ejected Native Americans from the land and then gave it to white people. So, white people have never had to participate in free market capitalism.
Michael Harriot [00:06:57] And the same is true after slavery with Jim Crow. You think about segregated schools, for instance, Black people after slavery pay taxes. They worked and their tax dollars was handed over to white people. It funded the schools that they attended, but Black people couldn’t. It built those colleges. It built those segregated land grant colleges. The Homestead Act did. So if home ownership is the largest determinant of wealth in America, and it is. If education is what determines, or what gives us opportunity, then all of that was achieved not through a free market, not through capitalism, but by these government programs that robbed Black people of wealth and labor and handed it to white people. It was not capitalism. At the heart of capitalism lies this idea of rugged individualism and competition. You know, that’s what kind of defines a free market, an economy unencumbered by interference from outside forces. But as you can see, that doesn’t exist.
Michael Harriot [00:08:08] First of all, there’s never been a second in the history of this country that white people have largely competed on an even playing field with anyone that is nonwhite or anyone who is nonwhite. Whether it is education, they got segregated schools that was built with nonwhite people’s money. Whether it is work, they got to compete in a job market that excluded Black people. Even business ownership. So when you think about business owners, well, a lot of business owners, as a matter of fact, the majority of billionaires inherited their wealth and that wealth was built in generations that their parents or their grandparents didn’t have to compete against Black people. So Bill Gates might have built Microsoft on his own, but he was able to drop out of college and start a business in his garage because of the market that his parents competed in for their jobs, to fund his education, to fund his business. And so this generational wealth inherited, or passed down, is a result of a lack of competition.
Michael Harriot [00:09:23] Even real estate, right?. If you own a house that was in a formerly segregated neighborhood, while the value increased all those years where the neighborhood was segregated, versus Black people lived in segregated neighborhoods, where one of the biggest factors in the devaluation of Black homes. There’s a Brookings Institute study that shows that a home in a Black neighborhood, even if it is exactly the same square footage, has the same amenities in a neighborhood with the same crime rate, of the same resources, it’s about $48,000 less than an identical white home. Because, one, white people don’t like to live around Black people. And it’s not just as plain as racism, but because there are simply more white people, the asset is devalued because there are fewer people competing for a home that is in a Black neighborhood. It’s a simple math problem.
Michael Harriot [00:10:23] Even when you look at education, right? Take the most recent Supreme Court ruling that ended what they call affirmative action. It really did end affirmative action because white people still have affirmative action. What’s legacy admissions? If many of these colleges were segregated for most of their existence, then if you get in because your parents or your grandparents attended that college and your grandparents or parents didn’t have to compete against Black students for admission. Then you are benefiting from an economy that was the opposite of a free market. It was government manipulated, whether it was Jim Crow, whether it was segregation and allowing legacy admissions to continue while striking down affirmative action perpetuates that unequal market, that encumbered market.
Michael Harriot [00:11:18] So as you can see, never in the history of America have white people actually participated in a free market. They have never experienced true capitalism. They have never competed. Versus when we talk about and denigrate, you know, people like Jay-Z, who actually competed in a market that was probably stacked against them because, you know, the record companies were owned by people who had generational wealth, who built them in the early 1900s. He succeeded in a system that was stacked against him. He participated in capitalism against others who didn’t have to. And that’s why capitalism for white people have never really existed, except in theory. And that’s also why you have to tell your friends about this podcast. You have to subscribe. That’s why you should be downloading that Grio App. And that’s also why we always leave you with a Black saying. And today’s Black saying is from Martin Luther King, who said, “We all too often have socialism for the rich and rugged free market, capitalism for the poor.” And we’ll see you next time on theGrio Daily.
Michael Harriot [00:12:34] If you like what you heard, please give us a five star review. Download theGrio app, Subscribe to the show and to share it with everyone you know. Please email all questions, suggestions and compliments to podcasts@theGrio.com.
Announcer [00:12:50] You are now listening to theGrio’s Black Podcast Network. Black Culture Amplified.
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