Week 1&2 Discussion

Week 1

On its own, capitalism symbolizes the concept of the economy being held in control by individuals and private organizations. With the racial tag attached to it, however, spawns the idea of groups of differing race experiencing an unlevel playing ground similar to the caste system introduced in other civilizations. As for the abolitionist geographies, it appears to be an extension of racial inequalities projected onto a source of prisons or “government funded housings” and that the support the people received and the physical location those people were at became the source of discrimination and racism. By extending that thought process, we can see that the capitalism is disrupting the society in creating a fissure separating people from each other. Thus, with a construction of a prison comes a byproduct of stress and separation in its surroundings.

Week 2

According to the author, settler colonialism is exactly as the name suggests: a type of colonialism established in the eyes of a settler. In the text, the author also implied a sense of superiority over the indigenous and that they serve to diminish and to replace their culture onto the newfound land. Which, as the author claimed: “justifies settler hegemony through an antiprimitive logic akin to antiblackness.”

By relating the Chinese to the US, one could make the connection to the gold rush in California. Then, many Chinese immigrated to the United States and strive to make a living there. However, the Chinese were discriminated due to their color, their stature, and also their hairstyle. (see picture left) This, combined with people’s idea of how their jobs were taken,(Reminds you of something, huh) spawned a series of anti-Chinese law that eventually drove them to Hawaii. This displayed the results of the imperialism innate to a country, and it might have been like the author said: “Perhaps, until we become multilingual in each others’ histories, we will continue to renew a system of imperial violence and capitalist exploitation.”