The Racial Capitalism Debate with Charisse Burden-Stelly

In this episode, Nathan sits down with Dr. Charisse Burden-Stelly to talk about the so-called Racial Capitalism ‘debate’ that has recently taken academic Twitter by storm. Charisse Burden-Stelly is Associate Professor of African American Studies at Wayne State University and author, among many many other things, of Black Scare/Red Scare: Theorizing Capitalist Racism in the United States (University of Chicago Press, 2023), co-author of W.E.B. Du Bois: A Life in American History (ABC-CLIO, 2019), and the terrific 2020 article in Monthly Review, “Modern US Racial Capitalism: Some Theoretical Insights.”Chapters00:00 Introduction to Charisse Burden-Stelly and the debate over racial capitalism03:03 Marx’s chapter on primitive accumulation and race04:39 Racial capitalism as an extension of primitive accumulation07:24 Robinson’s critique of race before capitalism09:23 Robinson’s challenge to Marx on racial continuities in feudalism12:16 Robinson's contributions to resistance and political philosophy15:16 Critiques of Robinson: essentialism and American exceptionalism18:15 The danger of race reductionism in critiques of racial capitalism21:17 The significance of W.E.B. Du Bois and other theorists23:32 Imperialism’s central role in understanding racial capitalism36:43 Connection to fascism, US racial grievance, and global imperialist project44:36 The importance of imperialism over racial capitalism in understanding global relations45:24 The primary contradiction of US imperialism as foundational to global capitalismKeywords: Racial capitalism, essentialism, race, racism, racial essentialism, exploitation, imperialism, colonialism, US imperialism Hosts in this episode: Nathan Kalman-LambSupport & Follow The End of SportPatreon: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/Theendofsport⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ (Support the show!)Bluesky: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@endofsportpod.bsky.social⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@endofsportpod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Twitter/X: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@EndofSportPod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The End of Sport⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Listen, share, and support The End of Sport, a proud member of the Harbinger Media Network, a community of over sixty leftist podcasts at ⁠⁠harbingermedianetwork.com⁠⁠.