For a Diverse and Plural Millenium
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Structural Racism:

Notes for a Conceptual Discussion

Dennis de Oliveira

One of the key issues in the analysis of structural racism in contemporary capitalistic societies in the current phase of flexible accumulation of capital, known as neoliberal globalization is the understanding of the characteristics of the current period:


  1. The transformation process from the model of regulation of production of the previous phase to the flexibilization paradigm that has as its main characteristics: large scale production, production chains, its control through a managerial hierarchy; and the reproduction of capital, through economy generated throughout the whole process and also in the residual accumulation of outputs derived from the under-qualification required and by the rotation of the labor force.

    Neoliberalism brought deep changes into this model, especially because the new model of production has as its main characteristics: the use of electronic technology, the different value of job positions, the diversified small scale production , the reproduction of capital through the immediate attention to specific and segmented demands; flexibilization of the rhythm of production, adapting to circumstances in the market

    Entering this system demands a more generic knowledge, adaptable to circumstantial changes. Flexibilization is the key word of this new paradigm of production, because it implies the exclusion of those who lack knowledge, with unemployment as a permanent result to this. The notion of universal rights disappears in this context.


  2. Changes in the paradigm of consumption, because there is a trend to look for the segmentation of the market, while at the same time, the market becomes more sophisticated and specialized according to consumers groups. However, it moves huge amounts of money.

    In this context, mass media and its propaganda play a key role organizing consumption, according to these segmented trends. There is a greater specialization of the media according to sectorial trends, in order to improve the advertising discourse oriented to these market enclaves.

    As there is a segmentation in production and distribution, there is also a strong trend to concentrate the leadership of these processes. This market segmentation is led by an increasingly monopolized capital, because new production technologies that facilitate the adoption of these new productive and consumer paradigms, demand more and higher investment, and there is an increasing volatility of equipment installed in factories. Thus, in this struggle, the survivors are large monopolies; and small and medium enterprises are practically condemned to death.


In the social field, this new economic configuration of neoliberalism brings about deep changes. First of all, there is a separation between those who can be included in the job and in the consumer market, and those who are left out. The second is a result of the first characteristic, it is the total destruction of what is called public space and civil society, facing the geometrical increase of social differences. The third characteristic is the inefficiency of generalized public policies that do not consider this brutal difference generated in the social fabric, transforming rights into privileges. And, finally, the fourth change, the devaluation of the idea of democracy (in its pure sense) and of social justice. This is why neoliberalism differs from classic liberalism, because the latter maintains the idea of equality, its original project (even if it was not put into practice); while the former mediates the idea of equality and democracy, subordinated to efficiency in the capitalist managerial sense.

Neoliberalism intensifies racist projects

Together with this continuous process of selection and exclusion, racial mechanisms arise as selection criteria, first in the formal job market, and then, as a consequence, in the exercise of citizenship. For this reason, neoliberalism intensifies racist projects, including those of a political party character (as was seen recently in Europe with the reappearance of nazi-fascist organizations in France, Germany, Italy, Russia, among others).

It is important to perceive that in these times of neoliberalism, the formal mechanisms of democracy are also relative: there is a systematic campaign against legislative power; the introduction of political marketing in electoral disputes, de-politicizing social debates and transforming them into simple publicity games and games of constructed images; the proposal of judging legal norms (primarily those related to labor and social issues) removing any form of social control on the function and action of those who are in government power positions, among others.

In the specific case of countries that were colonized, such as those of Latin America, that built their primitive base of accumulation on the basis of slaved labor of black and indigenous peoples; that went from a bourgeois conservative revolution, that kept, almost intact, their aristocratic and pro-slavery structure; the adoption of this neoliberal model increases the already existing process of exclusion, practically condemning those who belong to this population segment to extermination. This occurs in an extensive form, due to the increase in the number of individuals who enter the area of social exclusion, in a process that we could name as “democratization of the pro-slavery haciendas”. And, it occurs in an intensive form, due to the intensification of exclusion mechanisms of those individuals who were already in the area of the excluded, in a complementary process that we will denominate of "extermination of the pro-slavery haciendas".

Both processes – democratization and extermination of pro-slavery haciendas – practically destroy the already sick civil society and transform citizenship into an even less accessible privilege for the majority. Social rights, although legally protected, become dead letter in the face of the lack of capacity of public powers. The trend of income concentration worsen the problems even more, and in addition, the resolution of these demands require gradually more voluminous investments that would imply a shift in the paths of current capitalist development.

Hegemonic sectors have two alternatives in facing this situation. The right wing simply proclaims the physical extermination of populations, in a process of ethnic cleansing. The center wing creates selection mechanisms so that part of these excluded populations may benefit from a basic network of social protection – which as time goes by, gets smaller – having control of unavoidable social explosions in these excluded segments. This trend will be denominated “manager of social tensions”.

Concern for instability caused by misery worries an important source of Global Power: the World Bank, which in its report on world poverty, call the attention of governments of developing countries, who due to neglect of the minimal demands of the miserable may place under risk the entire insertion process of third world economies in a neoliberal globalized world. The World Bank’s verdict is mandatory: misery can transform itself into civil war.

The World Bank’s concern for the increase of misery, is not about any altruistic attack on those who hold the new world power. It is just about the concern for the instability of the system. In other words, misery can reach unbearable levels that puts into risk the entire system in which the neoliberal capitalist is based.

However, the same report of the World Bank states further on: “The key for these and other unrelated plans, such as employment, are formulated in such a way as to maintain their role of representing safety for the poorer and are not used by those who are not in such desperate situation”.

The World Bank’s social action are developed, with priority, over-looking national states on the argument that these can use such actions for “political” and “populist” purposes. For this, they rely on NGOs which began to receive greater percentages of the projects funded by the World Bank. According to the document "Overview NGO - World Bank Collaboration" (available in the World Bank website), “between 1973 and 1988, only 6% of the projects funded by the World Bank included NGOs. In 1993, a third of the approved projects included NGOs, and in 1994, this percent reached 50%”.

Let us analyze the intensity of the mechanism of extermination imposed by neoliberal globalization. The UN report, “Perspectives of the Global Population – version 2000” (February 2001), states that the current global population is around 6.1 billion inhabitants, and grows at an annual rate of 1.2% - in absolute figures, this means over 77 million individuals per year. The same report notes that, in the year 2025, the most developed countries will have a population reduction tendency, while the poorest countries will continue growing.

These figures are important for a reflection on the perspectives of racism, and the current pattern of accumulation of wealth, because it is known that the richest countries concentrate 80% of the world’s wealth. This means that the poorest areas are the ones that concentrate - and will concentrate even more – the world’s population; increasing the concentration of wealth.

A situation like this tends to intensify migratory flows because with the increase of misery of the poorest regions, populations will try to find means of survival where wealth is concentrated. This is really serious, to the extent that there are migratory flows in some regions of Africa looking for drinking water. However, at the same time, the richest nations use racist and xenophobic mechanisms in order to control, and deny these migrant populations the access to the wealth of such nations.

Another problem that concerns the richest nations is the depletion of resources of the biosphere that are, in fact, concentrated in the tropical forests located, mostly, in the poorest countries, specifically in Latin America, Africa and Asia. Some studies show that there is an eminent depletion of the traditional energy sources – oil and coal – an one of the alternatives is the biosphere, a source of renewable and rich wealth in those forests. This is why, population growth control of these countries includes the non-recognition of land entitlement of peoples who have historically occupied them – as the Latin America indigenous peoples – moreover, it includes the mechanism of patents that oblige the poorest countries to pay for the industrial use of medicine produced from raw material extracted from their own territory.

Finally, an important issue to reflect on is the cruelty of these extermination mechanisms. Nowadays, AIDS is seen as a strategic factor for the population control of the countries of the African continent. The last UN report informed on the decrease in life expectancy of the affected population. Recently, pharmaceutical industries sued the South African government for the acquisition of generics at lower prices to provide care for HIV/AIDS patients, accusing the government of violating the law on patents. The message of this attack to the social work being undertaken understates that it is not necessary to provide care to sick, hungry, and poor Africans; in other words, it is better to let them die.

To discuss a movement strategy to influence the World Conference against Racism, it is essential, first, to publicly denounce these extermination mechanisms, as contemporary expressions of structural racism. These data must be presented to public opinion.

Second, they must hold nations, especially the richest or those benefited by neoliberal globalization, responsible for this scenario, and demand efficient mechanisms to combat racism. The Conference will be a special moment to build a great international alliance based on the peoples of the African Diaspora and indigenous peoples, confronting this economic model; and to make the logic of life prevail over the logic of material things.

The issues that this type of agenda must defend are:

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