How is capitalism racial? Fanon, critical theory and the fetish of antiblackness

ABSTRACT

I outline a proposal for an analysis of antiblackness grounded by the Marxist critique of the fetishistic forms of capitalist society. Traditionally, Marxist accounts of antiblackness turn, not to Marx’s theory of fetishism, but rather to dynamics of class formation under capitalist development, and hence to the ways that class formation motivates types of racism, including antiblackness. But accounts like these do not explain the distinctive features of modern antiblackness. Turning to the Marxist critique of fetishism, I argue for an account of the distinctive features of modern antiblackness, by bringing into conversation: (a) comments by Fanon on negrophobia and the relations between antiblackness and antisemitism; and (b) work by Postone on the fetishistic nature of modern antisemitism. I argue that antisemitism and antiblackness afford a pair of devices for falsely concretising the structure of alienation that produces the apparent opposition of labour and capital. These devices present the pathologies of modernity as stemming not from capitalist social relations but rather from the apparently essential powers of antisocial races: the Jew of antisemitism, caricatured as cunning will without productive bodily expenditure, and the Black of antiblack racism, caricatured as biological energy that lacks self-governing will.

KEYWORDS:

• Racial capitalism
• fetishism
• antiblackness
• antisemitism

Acknowledgments

My argument emerges from a dialogue with Andrew Sartori about the problem of race in capitalist society, which is to be the subject of a jointly authored monograph. I presented drafts at events organised by Anne-Maria Makhulu, Bernard Dubbeld, and Rogers Orock. I am immensely grateful to all three for engaging conversations, and especially to Bernard Dubbeld for bringing the current collection to publication. I am also grateful for thoughtful responses and criticisms from, alphabetically: Robert Blunt, Maxim Bolt, John Comaroff, Zimitri Erasmus, Julia Hornberger, Bridget Kenny, Andrea Muehlebach, Joel Quirk, Andrew Sartori, Eli Thorkelson, Ahmed Veriava, and Hadas Weiss. Finally, very prominent in the paper is the influence of my postdoctoral mentor, Moishe Postone, who passed away in the week in which I completed the first full draft. I have been saddened by being unable to share it with him, but I hope it honours his memory.

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Correction Statement

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Hylton White

Hylton White is a social anthropologist with interests in value theory and in critical ethnographic approaches to understanding the social life of norms. He is currently a Senior Lecturer in Anthropology at the University of the Witwatersrand, and a member of the editorial collective of HAU Books.