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.
