Two Racial Capitalisms: Marxism, Domination, and Resistance in Cedric Robinson and Stuart Hall

Abstract

The popularity of the concept of “racial capitalism” has exploded over the past decade, penetrating both academic and activist circles. Two thinkers have been foundational to this revival: Cedric Robinson and Stuart Hall. Whereas previous scholarship has tended to merge these two thinkers into a single framework, we argue that they develop divergent, and potentially irreconcilable, theories of racial capitalism. Robinson and Hall both challenge an orthodox Marxism that crudely reads politics from class position, and both point to the constitutive roles of culture and racism in mass mobilisation. Yet they diverge in two key ways. First, they root their theories in incongruous systemic logics: Robinson emphasises racial differentiation and domination, whereas Hall emphasises the maintenance of capitalist hegemony. And second, Robinson's theories of domination and resistance are rooted in spatial connections, most importantly via Western racialism and what he calls the Black radical tradition, both of which envelop the globe. By contrast, Hall insists on the spatial fragmentation of domination and resistance, which emerge as conjunctural articulations in specific contexts. Challenging the idea that there is a singular racial capitalism lens or frame, we urge scholars and activists alike to rigorously interrogate the specific mechanisms linking racism and capitalism.