# Slavery, Racism, and the Roots of American Capitalism

- Original post: https://www.twitter.com/i/status/2106009975952687285
- Source account: [@ezradulis](https://x.com/ezradulis)
- Source language: English
- Duration: 1:32
- Published: 2026-10-03
- Canonical URL: https://www.translate.mom/transcript/1kYaZJZPn9qj/en/slavery-racism-and-the-roots-of-american-capitalism

## Transcript

[0:00](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/1kYaZJZPn9qj/en/slavery-racism-and-the-roots-of-american-capitalism) American capitalism is born on the backs of African slavery.

[0:03](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/1kYaZJZPn9qj/en/slavery-racism-and-the-roots-of-american-capitalism?t=3) Absolutely right. Right? So it, from the beginning of it, the beginning of it, there was a group of people who are going through what the rest of Americans find themselves going through right now, which is their humanity and their worth and their, their labor was extracted by a capitalist organization, political system known as

[0:25](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/1kYaZJZPn9qj/en/slavery-racism-and-the-roots-of-american-capitalism?t=25) slavery so that people could make money and that they could toil in perpetuity. So the beginning of American capitalism at the, the jumpstart of wealth that the country got is rotten.

[0:36](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/1kYaZJZPn9qj/en/slavery-racism-and-the-roots-of-american-capitalism?t=36) You would agree with that? I'd agree with that 100%. Look, and, and I would argue, argue that our s- like let's d- let's separate, and you asked me about, you call yourself a capitalist.

[0:44](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/1kYaZJZPn9qj/en/slavery-racism-and-the-roots-of-american-capitalism?t=44) Certainly. I g- I gave you the definition of, of, of capitalism.

[0:48](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/1kYaZJZPn9qj/en/slavery-racism-and-the-roots-of-american-capitalism?t=48) I would just argue that America has never actually had a pure form of capitalism.

[0:52](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/1kYaZJZPn9qj/en/slavery-racism-and-the-roots-of-american-capitalism?t=52) We had closer to purity, but even then, when I, when we talked about the '50s and '60s- Mm-hmm ... that was the exclusion of Black folk, you know, by way of- Of course ... Jim Crow and segregation- Redlining ... and all the redlining- Right ... everything.

[1:01](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/1kYaZJZPn9qj/en/slavery-racism-and-the-roots-of-american-capitalism?t=61) Mm-hmm. So, you know, if you're Black in America, you've never actually had access to real capitalism. You were, you had your, your, your labor extracted from you via like the, the most fundamentally unethical, immoral act of placing somebody in, in, in, in, in, in, in slavery.

[1:19](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/1kYaZJZPn9qj/en/slavery-racism-and-the-roots-of-american-capitalism?t=79) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And then we've excluded Black folk in different ways.

[1:23](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/1kYaZJZPn9qj/en/slavery-racism-and-the-roots-of-american-capitalism?t=83) We still exclude Black folk in different ways from full participation in capitalism via access to capital, via access to good schools, via access to healthcare, via access to all these things.