Capital is Racist
If we talk about the future in terms of time, it feels like it has nothing to do with us. If, say, you state a fact that at this rate, in 100 years 90% of Africa is going to be owned by less than 10% of the people living in Africa—most of which will be Western capital—that doesn't sound as important. After all, you have real problems right now. You need to buy milk for your children and jewelry for your wives. These are real problems that you can feel now now. And you're right.
But consider it rephrased: if in your 30s you're renting, or if all the land you own is a 50 by 100 or even an acre, chances are high that your children will be renting African land from white landlords. And your grandchildren will likely be homeless (if conservatives run America in those years) or will stay in mass dormitories (if Democrats run America in those years). This sounds absurd, but it will happen.
Capital optimizes for more capital. If that means killing all the wildlife, and reducing the rest of Africa into a kraal and maize plantation to grow capital, that will happen.
If you're working for your children, you have to start imagining the state of Africa by the time those children are your age. From where you stand, do you have a say in what that Africa will look like? Can you even genuinely predict what Africa will look like? If the answer is no, just know it is likely the same answer for your neighbors as well. So the follow-up question will be whom you've left the fate of Africa to, and whether you trust them.
Is your passivity today subjugating your own children and their children to eternal poverty? Are you the superstitious kind who thinks funny numbers and white-made acronyms like GDP, SDG, etc., have your Black children's best interests at heart? Don't you ever wonder why capital is more accessible to white people than it is to Black people? Here is an example in your lifetime: Mark Zuckerberg just wasted $80 billion to experiment with some thoughts that came to him in the shower. And let's not talk about all the money that white people are using to mass murder children in Gaza because we don't want to get into politics. It better if we pretend the world is not managed by politicians or that they care about their constituents. That is the kind of money that gives all the poor people in Uganda the capital and agency to take back the fate of their lives and the lives of their children. But Zuckerberg blew it, and guess what? He simply got richer.
The world we live in is made up of 10% white people, but somehow, 65% of the wealthiest people in this same world happen to be white. Either that skin comes with some magic intelligence that we cannot explain yet, or a simpler explanation is that capital is racist. It prefers white people.
Now, we can cure capital of this mental illness. We can wake these billionaires up to the reality that wasting $80 billion without consequences while people are starving in Uganda is not acceptable. And yes, that Bill Gates shit of using philanthropy like a PR stunt is also disgusting. But in order for us to make this case clearly, we need to first clarify our own dream, and insist that we take charge of what we dream of, what we desire, and how we want to get these things.
But if we pray to Jesus or Bill Gates and hope they have our best interests at heart, they will use that capital so that their grandchildren will own our grand children like their grandparents owned some of your grandparents.
