Have you ever thought about why racial inequality is such a big problem in our society? Why do some communities have access to money and chances while others are facing racial segregation and hardship? The answer lies in history, not in personal choices or hard work. This is especially true when looking at the economic problems African Americans face. A history of slavery, colonization, and making economic systems that help some people while hurting others.
Colonization wasn’t taking over new lands for hundreds of years. It was about taking things from people, making them work, and putting up power structures that have effects on us even now. They got rich by taking advantage of Native American and African groups all over the world, from Africa to the Americas. Those effects didn’t go away; they changed over time to become the racial inequality we see now in the job market.
Colonization Was Never About Discovery—It Was About Control
The first big lie in history is the idea that colonization was about “discovering” new places. The truth about racial discrimination? People already lived in these areas and had developed their own cultures, businesses, and governments. Colonizers didn’t “find” anything; they took what they wanted and changed history to make it make sense.
To get the land they wanted, European countries often used violence, lies, and forced deals. This made systems that hurt black Americans even stronger. The goal wasn’t growth; it was also control of the economy. These lands weren’t valuable because they were there; they were valuable because black workers could use them. Colonists used stolen land to make money. In the Americas, they dug gold and silver mines, and in the Caribbean and the US, they planted sugar and cotton trees.
Forced Labor Creating The Wealth Gap
Getting people to work for you was the next step in building economic power after getting land. The colonists didn’t care about paying people enough for their work. This made the systemic racism that minorities face even worse. They instead relied on systems of forced labor that helped early capitalism grow.
– Slavery of Native Americans: It was bad for a lot of Native Americans to have to work or be slaves. They killed or moved people who fought.
– The trade of slaves across the Atlantic: They took millions of Africans hostage, sold them as slaves, and made them work on farms that made Europe and the US a lot of money.
– Indentured Labor: Sharecropping, debt peonage, and rules that made working for less money based on race kept non-white people from getting ahead in the economy even after slavery ended.
Not only did a few people get rich from these systems’ gains; many black people were left behind. They made a lot of money that would last for generations and help the economies of Europe and the United States grow, but they left Black and Indigenous people poor.
The Creation of Racial Categories to Support Economic Abuse
Before Europeans came, people identified more with their culture, group, or country than with their race. But as European powers grew, they created racial categories like “white,” “black,” “Indigenous,” etc., to excuse their exploitation of people’s resources.
Laws, rules, and social systems that are still in place today reflect this racial hierarchy. Today, we can still see the effects of these colonial race groups on the labor force, particularly among African Americans. Access to housing, good schools, fair wages, and job possibilities are all still affected by racial discrimination. These differences weren’t made by accident; they were meant to keep power structures in place that help people who have gained from colonization in the past.
The Effects of Racial Inequality Colonialism on Modern Capitalism
It didn’t end with colonization; it changed over time. In different ways, the same systems that took advantage of land and labor in the past are still in place today.
– Resource Exploitation: Global companies still take advantage of minerals, oil, and other resources in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, destroying natives.
– Low-Wage Labor: Cheap labor, often from countries that were once colonized, is still an important part of modern business. In the Global South, factories pay their workers a small part of what they would make in the West. This keeps the cycle of economic inequality going.
– Racial Inequality in the System: Communities of color can’t build wealth that will last for generations. It is because of things like redlining, wage gaps, and unfair lending policies.
As a result, the legacy of these actions continues to affect African Americans today. The difference in income we see now is a clear result of policies used during colonialism. So, it has disproportionately affected white households compared to black Americans. Countries and businesses that got rich by stealing land and using slave labor still make money off of systems that make it hard for non-white communities to get ahead.
Why This History Matters Today
“That was a long time ago. Why does it matter now?” But history isn’t what you read in school books. It changes how we live every day. When we know that colonization wasn’t about taking over. But it is also about taking advantage of people’s money, we can see that the differences between people today aren’t random. Planned out, with segregation at its core.
– Black and Indigenous groups have higher rates of poverty because they haven’t had the chance to build wealth for generations.
– What’s the deal with companies taking advantage of black workers in the Global South? Because economic systems from the colonial era never really stopped.
– People still treat people differently because of their race. This is because race emerged as a way to keep business power.
It’s not about the past; it’s also about now and the future. To make society more fair, we need to understand how these discriminatory systems came to be and work to break them down.
Knowledge is Power
To fix the problems resulting from colonizers and racial inequality, we need to write new histories using facts. And books like “Queen Khalifa and the Empire of XI” by Warren Keith Foster Sr. and Oji Samuel Blackston do that.
This book makes us think about what we know about the history of blacks and whites. It brings to light the forgotten tales of the Empire of XI; a Mesoamerican culture with strong ties to Africa that colonial researchers tried to erase from history. It shows how information from Alkebulan (ancient Africa) shaped cultures in the Americas long before Europeans came there.
Queen Khalifa and the Empire of XI by Warren Keith Foster Sr. and Oji Samuel Blackston is a great book to read if you want to learn about a little-known part of history. Let’s change history, and not in books. Let’s change how the world works from now on.
