COLONIALISM, RACISM AND THE STRUGGLE FOR HUMAN EMANCIPATION: race, class and gender in the fight against capital

Abstract

Racism is an economic, social, cultural and political praxis, originating in the context of the expansion of commercial capitalism in the 16th century, to justify the exploitation and oppression of African and indigenous peoples, as well as their descendants, aiming to exploit the workforce and extract wealth. for the colonizer. This type of labor exploitation produced wealth and provided the accumulation of capital necessary for capitalism to become hegemonic, both as a mode of economic production and as a civilizational model based on various forms of discrimination and hierarchization of difference.
The capital system uses the differences between human beings to impose its economic, social, political and cultural privileges, removing surplus value, on the one hand, and widening inequalities among members of the working class, especially women, black, Latino, indigenous, LGBTQIA+, on the other. In this way, racism, the various forms of oppression
and discrimination, as well as the construction of human emancipation will only be possible by confronting it by destroying capitalism and uniting the working class around common interests. This is one of the great challenges for Human Emancipation. In Brazil, race and racism are essential in our capitalist social formation, demarcating social and racial hierarchies and a Eurocentric mentality. The black working class, in the fight against racism and the black movement, in demanding “racial equality”, demanded from governments the implementation of policies centered on racial issues that would resolve the black issue. This article, therefore, guided by qualitative, bibliographic and documentary analysis, based on historical-dialectical materialism, proposes to debate this very challenging topic in contemporary times, addressing themes related to racial equality policies, as well as the socioeconomic conditions of black women, based on from the perspective of
historical materialism. In this sense, this text analyzes some assumptions of the policy to promote “racial equality” and its possibilities of guaranteeing or not guaranteeing racial equality. It highlights how racism has a structuring relationship with the capitalist mode of production and evaluates the discussions, actions and contradictions of the proposals of black
movement entities. Finally, we discuss the political practices necessary to achieve human emancipation and social equality.