Racial capitalism can be interpreted in multiple ways and scholars have argued that racism is a core functionality of capitalism, since it is deeply rooted in histories of colonialism and slavery. Another interpretation of racial capitalism is the process of deriving social and economic value from the racial identity of another person and limiting their access to certain financial products, like home mortgages. Although arguments have been made that capitalism is inherently racist, using the terms “racial capitalism” explicitly captures the distinct exploitations that occur along racial lines and how it affects racial and ethnic groups differently. Through this lens, racial capitalism can help people understand how different racial groups may be more negatively affected by the free market since global capital accumulation is dependent on anti-Black racism that exploits Black neighborhoods to cash in on rent gaps after decades of systemic neglect. The spatial distribution of residents in cities and urban centers across the world is deeply affected by how racial capitalism renders people and neighborhoods as surplus, and thus expendable via gentrification. 

This episode dissects racial capitalism, how it facilitates anti-Black housing markets and how western financial institutions have been the underwriters of American anti-Black racism with full support from the government. The episode highlights the pillars of racial capitalism and extractive economies that utilize things like homeownership as a stepping stone for wealth generation while simultaneously serving as a mechanism for exclusion in the mainstream economy. The episode focuses on racialized capital within the broader real estate sector and its political influence; and how local political economies hedge their bets on the spatial flow of capital, thus dictating who has access to space and financial resources. Urban planning is enlaced with racial capitalism and its effects on neighborhoods and housing markets. Planners struggle to create solutions that do not cater to the spatial needs of racialized capital. Planning practice needs to understand its responsibility for producing local political economies that devalue Black neighborhoods and Black people.

Can urban planning reverse the negative trends of racialized capital? How can planning promote a local economy that isn’t dependent on extractive and exploitative economies that have harmed Black communities? This episode features Noni Session and Solana Rice to discuss how racial capitalism has influenced their lives and the work they are doing to bring alternative economic models into cities while simultaneously building resident power to increase community control. The interviews were recorded in February and March 2021.