From the vantage point of racial capitalism Michael Dawson analyzes two competing historical narratives of the capitalist and racial orders. Analyzing these narratives is important, he argues, for understanding some of the central conflicts of our time in the U.S, and elsewhere.

Too many Marxists and Afro-Pessimists err by taking the enslavement of the black body as an instance outside of capitalist development either as pre-history (Marx), or as subject to perpetual terror outside the dynamics of a capitalist social order or economic dynamics (the Afro-Pessimists).  Dawson then argues that by analyzing each approach’s view on how temporality affects their theoretical grasp of patriarchy, the capitalist social order and white supremacy, but how the depredations of each can be fought. 

Michale Dawson is John D. MacArthur Professor of Political Science and the College Director of the Center for the Study of Race, Politics, and Culture, The University of Chicago

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