Black Buying Power is a Capitalistic Myth
The myth that Black America has a $1.3 trillion dollar buying power is a capitalistic lie that blames Black people’s spending habits for the reason why they are poor. This lie originates from Nielsen, which is a white owned consumer survey company which studies how much money Black people spend.
First and foremost, there’s a huge difference between “buying power” and wealth. The term “buying power” is a capitalistic term that refers to how much a community spends on consumer goods. Wealth on the other hand is ownership that is passed down from generation to generation. In addition, the term “power” implies that you have some form of control or ownership over the means of production. Which is false, as we do not control or own capitalism, white elites do.
This idea that we can buy our way to freedom with Black buying power (Black capitalism) is false. We cannot use an economic system that positions Black people as slaves to free us. Black capitalism requires a class group to be slaves just like white capitalism.
We must reject it, as it is inherently oppressive and does not work to our favor.
As a Black community, we do not and will never have wealth under capitalism. The system of racial capitalism will never allow us to catch up to the white elite by only consuming in our own community. Even if we buy Black 365 days a year, we will never obtain the same wealth as whites, as we do not own or control the means of production, whites do.
The facts are:
- 96.1 percent of the 1.2 million households in the top one percent by income were white.
- America’s 100 richest people control more wealth than the entire Black population.
- The 5 largest white landowners own more land than all Black people combined.
- The average Black family would need 228 years to build the wealth of a white family today.
Despite these facts, unfortunately our own people have fallen victim to this capitalistic conservative lie. The Nation of Islam has its separation rooted in Black capitalism. The Nation’s philosophy is that if everyone in the Black community can give 35 cents a week, we could somehow buy our (or Indigenous peoples) land back. And often times we hear the minister saying that if Black people just piled their money together we would solve our issues and not face oppression. These sentiments are simply blaming Black people for being poor, and often times come out of leftist activst circles.
The fact of the matter is that racial capitalism is the problem. The root of the problem is NOT Black people having “bad spending habits”. But rather the system of white supremacist capitalism itself which positions Black people, specifically Black folks in the working class, as slaves to the white ruling elite.
To conclude, American capitalism has its roots in genocide of indigenous peoples and the enslavement of Afrikans. The wealth that this country was built on was at the expense of enslaved Afrikans building this country for the white elite. Capitalism will never free us. Black capitalism is deadly just like white capitalism. We must reject capitalism and resist it at all costs.
thank you to Dr. Jared Ball for making knowledge accessible, I was first put onto this when I watched this youtube video.
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