
New Books in Critical Theory
Charisse Burden-Stelly, "Black Scare/Red Scare: Theorizing Capitalist Racism in the United States" (U Chicago Press, 2023)
Nov 17, 2023
Charisse Burden-Stelly, researcher and author specializing in theorizing capitalist racism in the United States, discusses the conjoined nature of the Black Scare and Red Scare in the early 20th century. She explores how US capitalist racist society and Wall Street imperialism intertwine to maintain racial and economic order. The podcast also examines the intersection of black radicalism and state repression, and explores the parallels between the South African apartheid government and the American state in their fear of African Americans.
47:13
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Quick takeaways
- The Black Scare and the Red Scare in the early 20th century were interconnected responses to Black militancy and anti-capitalist ideas, working together to maintain racial and economic hierarchy in the United States.
- Wall Street imperialism sustains US capitalism by consolidating monopoly finance capital, perpetuating economic exploitation and racial domination, and using war-mongering and militarism as tools of accumulation.
Deep dives
Motivation to write Black Scare, Red Scare
Dr. Cherise Burden-Stelli was motivated to write Black Scare, Red Scare based on her research on the relationship between anti-blackness, anti-radicalism, and anti-communism. She wanted to explore the hostilities towards Black people and radicals in the United States and how they mutually inform each other. Through her research, she aimed to delve deep into the concept of Black Scare, which had been underdeveloped in previous works, and examine its connection with the Red Scare from World War I to the early Cold War.
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