Racial Capitalism 101
Who coined the term “racial capitalism”?
Cedric J. Robinson
What field does Ruth Wilson Gilmore work in?
Geography
What city does Herscher use as a major example of racial capitalism?
Detroit
What does “political ecology” study?
How power and economics shape environmental relationships.
What term does Gilmore use for building life beyond punishment?
Abolition
What is racial capitalism?
The process by which capitalism depends on and produces racial hierarchies.
What does Gilmore mean by “the state is the geographical solution to political and economic problems”?
The state organizes space to manage capital, labor, and populations.
What is “blight” often used to justify?
Urban renewal or removal of communities of color.
How is architecture connected to capitalism?
Through material extraction, labor, and energy consumption.
What does Gilmore mean by “organized abandonment”?
The state’s withdrawal of support from communities, leaving them vulnerable.
According to Ruth Wilson Gilmore, what is racism?
The state-sanctioned or extralegal production and exploitation of group-differentiated vulnerability to premature death.
What example does Gilmore use to discuss racial capitalism in California?
The rise of prisons and carceral infrastructure in rural areas.
How does Herscher connect “blight” to capitalism?
It protects property values and white wealth by devaluing racialized neighborhoods.
What is meant by “the metabolism of architecture”?
The flows of energy, water, and materials that sustain buildings and cities.
How does Herscher suggest we critique urban development?
By examining how it reproduces racial and economic inequalities.
What major global system does racial capitalism tie together?
The economic exploitation of labor, land, and resources through race.
Why does she say “the prison is a geographical solution to political problems”?
Because prisons manage populations made surplus by capitalism.
What court case upheld using “blight” as a reason for eminent domain?
Berman v. Parker (1954)
Why is the “ecology” of architecture political?
Because decisions about resources and design reflect systems of inequality and profit.
What alternative to extractive capitalism does “political ecology” propose?
Regenerative design and equitable resource sharing.
Why does Gilmore say race is “not a thing” but a “set of relations”?
Because race is made through social, spatial, and economic processes, not biology.
What does Gilmore emphasize as the opposite of carceral geography?
Abolition geography, building life-affirming systems and spaces.
What was unique about Detroit’s 2013 “Blight Emergency”?
It was the first official “blight emergency” in U.S. history, privatizing city management.
What would a “just” architectural ecology look like?
One that supports equitable access to resources and minimizes harm to people and planet.
Gilmore says, “Where life is precious, life is precious.” What does this mean?
Valuing all life equally requires dismantling systems that devalue some lives for profit.