Chandran Nair: White privilege and global capitalism have roots in private property rights
It is rare and often uncomfortable to discuss the relationship between race and capitalism. Attributing certain economic systems to race relations and even discrimination are generally seen as reductive and even racist. Yet it is important to recognise that capitalism has a racial origin in the West – which knowingly placed white populations, and in particular Anglo Saxons, on top of the economic pyramid. This is evident through an examination of one of its core tenets: private property rights.
Neoliberal Peruvian
economist Hernando de Soto helped to legitimise the idea in the West and around
the world that property rights are the fundamental enabler of private
enterprise, social mobility and even economic equality. To de Soto, the reason
why developing countries have not achieved high-income status and have not been
able to enact capitalism ‘properly’ has little to do with cultural differences
or the effects of centuries of exploitation, repression and inappropriate
governance systems foisted on them. Instead, he believes, it has everything to
do with the legal structure of property and property rights, most of which
would be alien to centuries-old local systems, customs and traditions.
Indeed, the primacy of private property is now enshrined in national laws around the world – aided by Western-led multilateral international institutions such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organization – and is seen as an unquestionable part of how human societies must be organised and allowed to prosper. But the truth is property rights are not universal: they are a social construct and cannot be viewed without historical nor socio-cultural context….
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