With his acquisition of brownstone units after a number of white families moved out, Payton acted to provide more housing to black renters in the Upper West Side. De facto segregation was still present in American cities at the time. Payton (1876-1917) was a 20th Century black real estate entrepreneur from Harlem, New York. With forces in social media, legacy networks, and the government working towards undermining the idea that capitalism is a force to promote individual liberty and agency, it's important to revisit a few stories of how the free market lifted people out of poverty and combated racism. “It is a striking historical fact that the development of capitalism has been accompanied by a major reduction in the extent to which particular religious, racial, or social groups have operated under special handicaps in respect of their economic activities have, as the saying goes, been discriminated against.” Even during the eras of Reconstruction and Jim Crow, periods that saw rampant civil rights abuses perpetrated on black communities, capitalism was the saving grace, helping people rise above their situation, the adversity they faced, and a culture still reeling from the effects of civil war.Īs Milton Friedman stated in his book Capitalism and Freedom: The fact of the matter is, capitalism as a system has always been a force for good, and this includes the tumultuous history of the United States. But is this true? What Capitalism Has Done We are led to believe that the free market is the force responsible for so much of the injustice, racism, and inequality seen in the modern world. It’s a good thing we have Google to open our eyes to this inhuman system.įacetiousness aside, (post)modern Western society views capitalism as the very ugly elephant in the room it doesn’t want to admit that it’s a crucial cog that keeps civilization functioning, and would rather oggle pipe dreams like socialism through heavily rose-tinted glasses. Reading those titles, it would seem as if the most triumphant economic model the world has ever seen is rooted in a racist, hegemonic structure meant to benefit society’s overlords. ![]() ![]() If you look up “capitalism fights racism” in Google, the top search results will show articles like: “ Is Capitalism Racist,” “ Capitalism without Racism: Science or Fantasy,” and, “ The Rise of Capitalism and the Emergence of Racism.”
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