Capitalism differentiated peoples into racial categories rather than homogenizing them

Evidence

The bourgeoisie that led the development of capitalism were drawn from particular ethnic and cultural groups; the European proletariats and the mercenaries of the leading states from others; its peasants from still other cultures; and its slaves from entirely different worlds. The tendency of European civilization through capitalism was thus not to homogenize but to differentiate—to exaggerate regional, subcultural, and dialectical differences into “racial” ones. As the Slavs became the natural slaves, the racially inferior stock for domination and exploitation during the early Middle Ages, as the Tartars came to occupy a similar position in the Italian cities of the late Middle Ages, so at the systemic interlocking of capitalism in the sixteenth century, the peoples of the Third World began to fill this expanding category of a civilization reproduced by capitalism. — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 205

Categorization

• DEFINE: This is the core statement distinguishing ‘racial capitalism’ as a concept—that capitalism reproduces hierarchy by racial differentiation rather than universalizing categories.
• corroborated: 3 independent passages support this claim — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 205
• XREF: connects to: Feminism must combat domination across sex, race, and class, not just male chauvinism — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 562; Proletarianization created divisions among workers instead of erasing them; Post-1877 capitalism used differential reward by race to stabilize wealth (+50 more)

Broader Connections

• Racial hierarchy and whiteness were invented inside Europe before modern capitalism #qualifies (0.70)
• Capitalism triumphed by cultivating divisions rather than erasing them within the working class #corroborates (0.60) — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 267
• Capitalism’s global unification paradoxically generated nationalism as fragmentation #corroborates (0.55)