Recommendations to create one’s own business have been the go-to when discussing the exhausting and debilitating experiences of capitalism. For those who work in exploitative environments, there is the ongoing cycle of working under harmful conditions that are detrimental to their well-being and survival. In awareness of this many seek resolution in entrepreneurship, assuming that they will be free from the effects of capitalism. Despite the invasiveness of capitalism in every aspect of one’s life, viewing entrepreneurship as a means of escape can result in the cycle of exploitation for marginalized groups. Exploitation is a part of capitalism’s framework, garnering . . .
Petite Bourgeoisie
There’s Fires to Start
private property did a number on our humanity
capitalism fashioned platforms out of protest posters
podiums don’t belong next to gasoline canisters . . .
African Women, Don’t Be a Mammy for Empire
All too often these days we are witnessing petit-bourgeois African women willingly taking positions of leadership, power, and influence within the political and military infrastructure of the United States. Positions that require, as part of their job descriptions, acts of extreme ongoing violence against the world’s most oppressed populations, including their own people. . . .
Advancing The Struggle
Centering Discussion from Erica Caines’s Black Girl Marxists Webinar for Black Women and Femmes. Black feminism has been minimized to a merely progressive political ideology, not the radical movement that Black feminist theorists had argued for; thus, a specific class of Black women (the petty bourgeoisie) has risen as “Black leaders.” In the almost nine months of COVID-19, these groups of the new ‘new Black’ has redefined racial justice within the boundaries allocated by the Democratic Party, discounting the real movements happening (and continuing to happen) in the streets. These same groups of Black women have served as buffers or . . .
Atlantan Wakandism: Why Black Capitalism must be Challenged
The Black Bourgeoisie class sells the idea of Atlanta as being some sort of mythological negro-town, where all your dreams come true and you will be safe from poverty and downward mobility caused by capitalist stratification. The smoke and mirrors of a Black paradise that they offer is what I call Wakandism. It is a belief that a place where some Black people have success offers a model to be followed while ignoring the struggle of Atlanta’s predominantly Black working class. . Most often wakandism is applied to Atlanta as an outlier for the United States since a Black capitalist . . .
The African (Black) Petti-Bourgeoisie has Always Been a Problem
Its critical that we as African people understand that the African petti-bourgeoisie will always choose their class interests over the interests of the masses of African people. . . .
Aren’t We Tired Of The Obamas Yet?
One of the biggest issues with perceived notions of Black excellence is the ways it is contributed to uncritical perceived notions of success. There is an avoidance in acknowledging that “Black excellence” is rooted in a colonial narrative of what makes someone exceptional. Circumstantially, that perception is determined by what we deem “success”. The contradictions of Black excellence is most evident in the romanticizing of The Obamas. Barack Obama’s 8-year presidency has been a surface level achievement for the Black community based on identity reductionism. After all, he is the FIRST Black president. But a closer inspection of those 8 . . .