Capitalism Hits Home: The Origins of Racism - An Untold History

[S5 E06] The Origins of Racism - An Untold History
Our nation's racism was a deliberate policy developed in response to rebellions in the 1600s when white indentured servants, free black men and women and enslaved black people rose up together against their exploitation. In this episode of Capitalism Hits Home, Dr. Fraad shares the story of this hugely important, yet often untaught, historical moment and its implications today.
​Capitalism Hits Home with Dr. Harriet Fraad (CHH) is a ‪@democracyatwrk‬ production. The show addresses the intersection of capitalism, class, and personal lives, and explores what is happening in the economic realm and its impact on our individual and social psychology. Learn more about CHH: www.democracyatwork.info/capi...
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References:
- A People’s History of The United States by Howard Zinn: bookshop.org/books/a-people-s...
- America’s Working Women: A Documentary History, 1600 to the Present by Rosalyn Baxandall and Linda Gordon: history.wisc.edu/publications...
- The South: Jim Crow and Its Afterlives by Adolph L. Reed Jr: bookshop.org/books/the-south-...
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[@JENTHINKSO]

Thanks for this wonderful video. I homeschooled my kids and Zinn's People's History was/is our most treasured history book.

[@kingdomfor1]

It's only in my later years I understand the importance of history, it's as important as math and literacy, knowledge of history is what shapes our future .

[@CornFedZ06]

What are your opinions on "governments". History has quite a bit to say. There's only one feature that has remained throughout history in central authority. And I'm curious what you think that is.

[@kingdomfor1]

@@CornFedZ06 The word that comes to mind is Fear, people are ruled and controlled by fear , even religion uses fear to control people, history shows us that, we are afraid of what the government might do to us , if we don't follow their rules, some rules are important in society, dont murder, rape or steal , but government have gone way beyond that now , with so many rules and regulations designed to keep us in a state of fear and under control, I'm really no philosopher , What do you think?.

[@shannon3944]

@@kingdomfor1 Well said, and I agree completely!⚘⚘👏👏 Late start here, too.😥 Today, I learn all I can.😊 (I'm really liking philosophy, too.)❤💯

[@ProsperitymissionOrg]

Good on you for presenting this truth about the process that created racism.

[@eugenehardy1597]

I appreciate you and your video, it gives me hope that as a population together we set things right in this country.

[@kirstinstrand6292]

Our sobering and difficult history; we are still being manipulated. Thank you for sharing our origins.

[@dentonfender6492]

As George Carlin, comedian, stated in one of his stand up gigs on American Bullsh*t: "The United States was started by slave holders who claimed all men are created equal". (I'll attempt to use disguised words in place of George's flowery language). George said: "Bullsh*t binds us as a nation". "American Bullsh*t": Land of the Free, Home of the brave, the American dream, all men are created equal, justice is blind, the press is free, your vote counts, business is honest, the good guys always win, the police are on your side, God is watching you, your standard of living will never decline" --- George called it the American Okie-dok. Good show.

[@mizztotal]

Too bad the indentured turned on the enslaved. What a huge breach of trust! In order to have any hope of eventually regaining some measure of that trust and solidarity at this point their descendants would first and foremost need to lead the push for Reparations for the descendants of American chattel slavery. We're not falling for the banana in the tailpipe anymore smh

[@theone8189]

A biological weapon was used to kill off the American Indians: The Fort Pitt case is infamous. In June 1763, the fort was besieged during Pontiac’s Rebellion. Soldiers and civilians in the fort had smallpox-as did some of the Native Americans outside. Two Delaware dignitaries, in the fort for a parlay, were given “two Blankets and a Handkerchief out of the Small Pox Hospital” when they left, wrote the trader and land speculator William Trent in his diary. He concluded: “I hope it will have the desired effect.”

[@StaceNyourFace]

Not many people know about that horrific atrocity, let alone all of the other terrible things that have been done to Indigenous people here in America!! 😟 They have been mistreated for centuries, and they still are to this day, unfortunately.....😢

[@JB-vb6dh]

Gerald Horne is the first person who I heard to really help me understand the racial component of Bacons Rebellion.

[@jokers7890]

racist, not racial

[@tobeornottobetobeornottobe974]

Impressive lecture. Thanks so much.

[@Smittumi]

Incredible. Thank you.

[@anhedonic-voting]

Thank you 🌎 ✊️ 🌹 🗽

[@jeffsmith9420]

Excellent video. The reality of "race" relations in the United States is that the really are class relations.

[@jokers7890]

yup along with all identities which separate people against each other.......except that one identity as a human being.....that one seems to unite

[@naturallaw1733]

Thank you, pretty interesting indeed. 👍

[@MrDayinthepark]

Excellent Harriet. The amazing facts of our American history, needs to be told, just as you have here.

[@protanto2794]

"Divide and conquer" - They have been using this for centuries, and sadly, it still works. It is not race; it is not gender...it is, and it always has been a class issue. Everything else is only a distraction. Thank you for this awesome video.

[@mgsee]

This history was unknown to me, and so important.

[@blackvinylgrooves]

A similar situation existed in Australia.

[@kingdomfor1]

Yes , exactly the same story, British imperialism.

[@datboyke]

This is going to be intense

[@Lee-Van-Cle]

Thanks for the valuable Information!

[@leorahgad]

Thank you for this presentation. I was under the impression that the origin of the racial discord originated much later. Your presentation had me to do some additional research. Always a good thing. Thanks again.

[@jaybirddee3790]

Love you! Thank you so much!!! Incredibly interesting.

[@kirstinstrand6292]

My guess is that most of our Great Grandparents arrived on these ships; and of course no one talks about history, except how >they< want us to think.

[@damnnative3188]

Thank you for this history 🙏🏼

[@pilleater]

Thank you!!

[@amberwood1998]

Love your work!

[@aptorres01]

Great wrk guys thank you

[@longshotny]

Brave, Intelligent, concise and thoroughly honest! I salute you💪🏿 thx! But people often don't want the truth!🤔

[@alejandrowilliams6122]

thank you!

[@zulmavillalba6137]

Wow so much historical info which are not found in textbooks. Thank you.

[@janedoe5048]

I hope I'm not getting a head of Dr. Fraad, but I always thought it would be a woman that would lead us to kick start the next fight for our collective lives and this talk is the first step. I already see the difference in how men and women operate. Men order, demand, through the threat of punishment that soldiers step up and fight. Women, like Dr.Fraad just did, bring people together by point out dependency and need for each other and people will end up on the same side without being threatened. I wonder if a soft feminine voice to quietly leads us into the next resistance.

[@sirkayda7205]

Nice sexism you got going here.

[@dennisyoung4631]

All of the “isms” - racism, ableism, etc. - are tied into one’s place in the dominance hierarchy/class system.

[@johnpender8813]

This is a great series, first of all. That said, it's kind of a shame that Bacon's Rebellion is the prime example of interracial cooperation, given that their goal was to open a can o' whoopass on the local native population.

[@robertbentzel6881]

Your great

[@christophercotton7149]

This message is so needed, but so unheeded, even by otherwise progressive or reformists folk.

[@donnathedead7554]

In many ways, most of us are still slaves.

[@jokers7890]

exactly, most people are wage slaves which should unite all of us together

[@kirstinstrand6292]

Unfortunately, I doubt things will get better, but let's hope for the best!

[@noobisprop]

Everyone has the right to live and not be drugged.

[@mercurialsilver5688]

Hail to the algorithm gods!

[@rafaelpena4269]

✊🏾

[@Guitarpima]

At the end she says, thank you for listening this long, if you did. I think you are ready for channel 7, WHIO, and their news broadcast at 11.

[@tanujSE]

According to property accumulation and primary ownership,ofcourse christian whites are there,race therefore exists Only their non racial behaviour and games cannot be justified I hope you are fine

[@Guitarpima]

Funny how behaviors never change. Sad.

[@rodbennett1133]

the wages of whiteness are breathtaking stupidity if you choose whiteness.

[@CharlesHarpolek4vud]

Poor people, mostly brown color skin, are victimized by the racial structure of today's society.... Your grandparents may have been slaves but how much better off are you now and why don't you demand better treatment. Ask any person like a capitalist what is their big worry,,,,, the worry is having enough people to fill their jobs.... Workers with no capital are still extremely valuable and must hold up their head and demand to be paid equal pay for equal work---- and the person who knows best the answer to that issue is the person doing the work.

[@rockyfjord3753]

The French pseudo scientist Gobineau invented the concept of Race that predominates in the West today. He had a theory that the Aryans were superior to other 'races' he called them. Unfortunately his concept of race took root in the West. Then came Arnold Toynbee, pseudo historian who invented the concepts of Racism and Anti-racism, the latter penchant he believed he was the only adherent among all intellectual peers. His ideas were based upon his idea that the Protestant British thought they were the chosen people spoken of in the Old Testament, which attitude then bled over into colonialist practices vis-a-vis indigenous peoples in India, Africa, and so on. Unfortunately these concepts were also adopted by the West, and remain prevalent to this day. The Spanish Philosopher Ortega y Gasset eviscerated Toynbee and his concepts derived from Gobineau, in 'An Interpretation of Universal History.' Unfortunately people who waded into the Civil Rights movement had never read Ortega. The result was that race was defined by the Other. Without the Other as a race, there was no concept of race, and of course racism followed just as Gobineau's ideas were adopted by the Aryans and Nazis as salient; the Other became the Jews and so on. In the US today, race is still focused on the Other as the source of racism and race victimization. The problem with this is that individuals who struggle against difficult circumstance then look externally, and do not go inside themselves to find orientation and solutions to their lives and futures. I think that to be an antiracist is no point of pride, for today the only people who are antiracist are those who cannot be anything else; it is a sign of personal lack of culture, and just as far removed from present day reality as its opposite, to be pro-racist. Most of the wording of this statement comes from Ortega y Gasset, so paraphrased and adapted to my perspective on Race, Racism, and Anti-racism. I think MLK also missed the belying gambit that Race as in the US today requires the Other to define it. Getting one's eyes on this Other [as Gobineau introduced with his superiority thesis] is the opposite resolution for individual problems of ethnic origin, or so I think.

[@jamesowuor6572]

Very brilliant.

[@andrewgreen5574]

Early racism existed within the Muslim world prior to the 1400's to justify enslavement of "black skin", this justification was the use of the curse of Ham. It was further institutionalized and expanded by the Catholic church. Portugal was the first slave runners and expanded the trade to the Brits, and by the 1600's the term "Negro" was infused into the lexicon. In the 18th century, with the rise of The Enlightenment, race was further institutionalized through scientific racism. Gobineau was born in 1812, while he did help spread scientific racism, he certainly wasn't the origin of race.

[@rodbennett1133]

good grief pal!

[@Korvmannen]

I think we need to be very cautious about equating past ideas with current ones. It can very easily slide into revisionism as this sadly still is such a hot topic. Undoubtedly the current ideas about race has historical roots, but sadly a lot of people are genuinely surprised when told that Slavs were considered subhuman by the Nazis, while elevating Iranians (as suggested by the country's current name, but I presume Persians more specifically) *as* Aryans by blood or whatever, and also that the Chinese and Japanese and some others where considered "Honorary Aryans". And not to mention that Jews and Romani (and more I'm sure) never were treated well here in Europe. From everything I've heard about the black slaves in America, I don't think that "racism" even begins to cover how cruel it was. It feels like saying only "bigotry" instead of l*nchings.

[@rockyfjord3753]

@@Korvmannen Well I visited the row houses of slaves in Virginia, and they were quite livable with fireplaces in each cabin, better than places I lived in when homeless in the US. Life on plantations may not have been as cruel as the journey by ship across the Atlantic. The trade of slaves was surely difficult for black families. Some plantation owners freed their slaves even before the Civil War, as a large number from the Randolph plantation were settled by the owner through purchase of land for the colony. Unfortunately judicial authorities in the North turned them around and their land was taken by the court. Slaves on plantations had adequate housing, food, and medical care. They worked the farms, which in and of itself is not cruel. A great deal of problems for blacks occurred after emancipation, sad to say. They lost the occupation[s] they knew, and housing, and were forced to fend for themselves which they were not prepared to do. Life today for the minimum wage worker without medical care and minimal standard housing, is no better, and dubious freedom means much to homeless people, or millions incarcerated. The fate of the Amerinds was worse. But to focus upon Race is the opposite of a resolution. In fact it is the very perpetuation of the problem, which is seeing the Other as the source of Racism. Slavery began before Gobineau. but the concept of Race extant in the US today, is from him and Arnold Toynbee. Dubious the abolitionists were focused on Race, rather on emancipation. The emancipation needed today is internal and cultural, not external and the Other. Or so I think.

[@Korvmannen]

While I whole-heartedly support the message and fully agree with what is being said, I still take issue with the title. Racism has probably existed *at least* for as long as societies has. One could only take a look at how Jews and Romani were treated here in Europe long before colonialism. My main issue is two-fold because of the language being used in the title. (I don't disagree with what is being said even in the slightest, as previously stated.) - First, that it risks conflating the atrocities that the black slaves in America were victims of with more current and colloquial use of the word (where too many sadly conflates systematic oppression with saying the n-word or something). There's two very different situations with on the one hand chattel slavery, and on the other contemporary systemic violence and discrimination that black Americans experience currently. I'd argue that the conservative response to the BLM movement is a clear example of the ambiguity that the umbrella term racism can have, to the average person at least. But I'd still say that I see this a bit on the left in general as well. Despite that people should learn more about racism through history, I still think that it's part of our own moral obligations as well to do our best to make ourselves understood. It feels out of line of me to say this in response to the title of a video by Harriet Fraad _herself_ though I still would like to point out how I understand the title. - Second, that "origin of racism" is too vague to describe what really was going on. If anything would qualify as the original racism of whiteness in America, it would be the genocide of native americans as it started before using black slaves. Even so, racism through history hasn't looked _quite_ as it looks today. The term whiteness _can_ be reductive, and particularly so outside of USA. It does appear to me that in America that "white" has become an ethnicity in its own right, while that still isn't _quite_ true here in Europe. I'll admit it, we still view other European ethnic groups as having "otherness". It's not even close to the racism towards POC, but we still think and say things like "Italians, you know", or some Germans calling Poles "thugs". Or vice versa. Certainly the EU project has helped tremendously to remove most of the tensions in Europe, and we're not stuck in mid 20th century where Hitler considered Poles to be subhuman, and so on. *TL;DR:* Good video, but I think that the title is counter-productive.

[@ynotlearn4190]

Although other European ethnic groups may be viewed as having some otherness, they are still viewed as white. Many Europeans viewed themselves as white when comparing themselves to non Europeans before they stepped foot in the so called Americas.

[@ynotlearn4190]

Your first point doesn’t even make sense.

[@Korvmannen]

@@ynotlearn4190 Your reply isn't really a response to the point I was trying to make, is it. I'm asking for a broader and richer vocabulary when discussing racism, one that has more nuance than what I see in the current discourse. As far as I'm concerned, the treatment of both Native Americans and black slaves qualifies as genocides, yet the situation and context is notably different, past the continent that it took place in and who was responsible. It was the actions of white colonial settlers, and that's not up for debate. Yet, I wish that our vocabulary naturally would place more emphasis on the situation that we are trying to describe. Whiteness and white supremacy is a perfect descriptor for that what happened/happens both there and in Europe, but it will still never be the be-all and end-all explanatory model of racism everywhere. I did acknowledge that Europeans for the most part consider each other to possess whiteness (some ethnicities in the Balkans will be excluded, depending on who you talk to), and that it's a far cry from the persecution of Romani in Europe, which is extremely bad even today. Just imagine how much racism people from the Middle East face in Europe, and then add that disturbingly many Europeans don't even bother with "I'm not a racist, but ..." when talking about Romani. It's flat out WW2 era level of unapologetic racism. Yes, whiteness is the current problem. Though, that's not in contradiction to what we see elsewhere, such as with Putin's belief that justified the invasion of Ukraine; that both Russian ethnicity and Ukranian ethnicity are the same, a "Greater Russian" ethnicity... Which echoes Auchlussen point by point. Putin keeps talking about Western degeneracy and makes a distinction between his perceived ethnicity and that of Germanic or other broader ethnic groups in Europe. As in, Ukraine joining EU and NATO would, according to Putin, mean that the degenerate ethnicities in Europe would bring about decadence in Ukraine in direct opposition to Russian supremacy ideas. Is it really controversial if we can talk about racism in more than a few ways? If Putin views Europeans as subhumans that's not really a problem currently for the most part as we're still the hegemonic power in the world (after USA). But, the big but, it's extremely concerning to think about what might happen to ethnic Ukranians should they oppose Russification. If Putin does manage to occupy Ukraine, and Russification starts, your guess is as good as mine as what might happen to the Ukranians. The point is not to question whiteness, there's no need to as it's perfectly apt to describe so very much of the world's racism, but when naming this video simply "Origin of Racism", which does read as the origin of racism _categorically_ it becomes reductive to the point that it will be difficult to talk about racism in other ways. Again, the point is not to minimize anything, I'm even arguing that having a vocabulary that better can distinguish between the racism that was chattel slavery of black americans and the systematic racism that they face today, we will have more powerful language to use against racists. We see this again and again, Republicans keep saying "oh you know, there's no slavery so there's no racism", meaning conflating _one_ expression of racism towards black with _another_ , in order to justify the latter (in other words the racism of today). *Yes* whiteness, but how should we apply whiteness to discuss the ongoing Uyghur genocide in China? Or Imperial Japan's genocide of Chinese (and so on)?

[@noobisprop]

It is a criminal act to drug anyone for any reason.

[@noobisprop]

Eeryone has the right to liv and not be drugged,

[@josephined8576]

i was born with this infection called RACISM.

[@angelcalero6464]

The powers that be have study this to a science. psychology, propaganda through all medias and lastly the belive in the lie.

[@carolinaquanonne597]

Person personal worship social status mirror definition women whom too male home mortgage venture capital weapon cost of bteathing

[@SamuelOrjiM]

Almost gave up on you

[@annejohnson8890]

This has been known always - you sound as if you have discovered something new.

[@kirstinstrand6292]

Let history sink in. Think about this reality with compassion, not just intellectually.

[@reginaldmorton2162]

This is a great lecture and I appreciate the details of English servitude, however the wages of whiteness are real. Over the many years those wages have accumulated into something much more substantial than racial solidarity. Many white servants have aquired land rights, built businesses and become entrenched social entities within this system over multiple generations. Most are multi million dollar structures and do not and will not identify with the servant/ employee class. Even if they don't reach the employer class, theres always a rich uncle, a parent or a grand parent that could easily plug them into the wealth needed to escape servitude/ employee. Are supposed to have solidarity with poor folk in exchange for better working conditions and a little more pay? Or will they throw us under the bus for grand dad's million dollar estate? Its a tough but easy choice.

[@samsmith3054]

You Tube, why on Earth did you recommend this silly stuff to me? I sure won't be trusting your recommendations in the future. It was hilarious, though. So thanks for the laugh.

[@jokers7890]

its probably the universe trying to give you a hint that you need to learn?

[@carl5381]

democrats never changed. Just their strategy.

[@sirkayda7205]

This is a skewed and pessimistic view of history and culture. I understand that this is a pro-socialism channel so that's what you'll get but it needs to be said.

[@YEPLIZZ]

Aww! boohoo!

[@thomasjamison2050]

History is just a bit more nuanced that this story, which I don't really count as history as much as a politically motivated statement. Some truth in it, yes, but a great deal of truth and understanding neglected. Back to psychology my dear.

[@Coastpsych_fi99]

He says with no evidence or compelling alternative.

[@thomasjamison2050]

@@Coastpsych_fi99 I do appreciate you compliment given by your obvious belief that the appropriate evidence to intelligently discuss centuries of history is something I can give you in a single blog sentence. I am so touched by your simple minded faith and naivety.

[@rcmrcm3370]