Capitalist expansion pursued racial directions, not the rationalization Marx expected

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 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Capitalists are opportunistic adapters, not the germ of a new rational order; Marx’s analysis could not apply to American Blacks without correction for the race problem; Du Bois recognized Marx had not anticipated imperialism’s transformations of capitalism (+18 more)

Related

• Marx presupposed a coherent racist and imperial ordering of world capitalism (similarity 0.96)
• Older British Marxists assumed race would dissolve once capitalism fell (similarity 0.91)
• Capitalism conserving non-capitalist modes produces racial and colonial ideologies. (similarity 0.91)
• Capitalism emerged within feudalism rather than negating it, rooted in racialism. (similarity 0.91)
• Capitalism developed along essentially racial lines, not rational universalist ones (similarity 0.89)
• Capitalism differentiated peoples into racial categories rather than homogenizing them (similarity 0.89)
• Capitalists are opportunistic adapters, not the germ of a new rational order (similarity 0.87)
• Racism and nationalism predate capitalism and shaped its development. (similarity 0.87)
• Marx’s analysis could not apply to American Blacks without correction for the race problem (similarity 0.86)
• Racial ideology functions as a labor discipline for capital (similarity 0.86)
• Du Bois recognized Marx had not anticipated imperialism’s transformations of capitalism (similarity 0.84)
• Racism is not necessary to the functioning of all capitalisms. (similarity 0.84)
• Racialism was already routine in Europe by the close of the Middle Ages (similarity 0.83)
• Capitalist expansion did not reduce colonized nations to Marx’s two-class bourgeois model (similarity 0.83)
• Race is the lived modality of class, affecting the whole class. (similarity 0.83)

Broader Connections

• Capitalism differentiated peoples into racial categories rather than homogenizing them #corroborates (0.90) — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 205
• Capitalism conserving non-capitalist modes produces racial and colonial ideologies. #expands (0.75)
• Marxist theory’s core model is Eurocentric, not just Marx personally #expands (0.70)
• Racism is a hegemonic practice that is articulated with, not necessary to, capitalist formations #complicates (0.60)
• Racial ideology functions as a labor discipline for capital #expands (0.55)
• Racialism pervaded Western consciousness before and beyond capitalism #qualifies (0.50)
• Racial hierarchy and whiteness were invented inside Europe before modern capitalism #complicates (0.45)
• Marx’s drive for theoretical elegance made him dismiss race, gender, and culture #expands (0.40)
• Marxian theory is structurally unable to grasp modern imperialism #corroborates (0.35)