Denigration & Dispossession

Jettisoning the sorry Marxist concept and turn of phrase “primitive accumulation,” as of late, I’ve been thinking with and through the phrase and concepts of “accumulation by denigration” and “accumulation by dispossession.”  Accumulation by denigration (from Latin denigrare “to blacken”) being the modus operandi of anti-Black racism, and accumulation by dispossession being that of (settler) colonialism.

As rationalizations, accumulation by denigration and dispossession serve to plausibly justify acts that satisfy the fetishes of empire, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, render imperial harvests of fetishistic pleasures increasingly more bountiful and efficient, though still not always profitable.

Those who believe that capitalism turns on making profits are mistaken. Capitalism actually turns on rationalizing fetishistic pleasures to make them increasingly more economical. Asceticism in pursuit of the profit motive is the imposition that capitalist empires put upon their victims. The denigrated and the dispossessed are compelled to make themselves profitable or else meet an early death; while the denigrators and dispossessors compulsively pursue pleasure by driving their victims to early deaths, often by making it increasingly difficult for their victims to make themselves profitable.

Crises produced by the falling rate of profit are precisely what capitalists seek— they are excuses that the capitalists need to subject the bodies, minds, spirits, and lands of the dispossessed and denigrated to all sorts of punishing deprivations. Ay, this is capitalism in a nutshell: debtors must injure themselves more and more in order to become more and more profitable for their creditors and employers, or else their creditors and employers will have license to take pleasure in subjecting them to punishing deprivations.

Going further still, those who believe that capital accumulation, generally speaking, (re)produces deprivation are also mistaken. It is accumulation by dispossession that initially (re-)produces deprivation; then it is accumulation by denigration that disciplines and normalizes the (re-)production of deprivation; then, finally, all forms of capital accumulation apart from accumulation by dispossession and denigration only serve to optimize the (re-)production of deprivation — financialization and industrialization being chief amongst them. 

In other words, dispossession forms the roots of deprivation; denigration forms the stems of deprivation; and financialization and industrialization form some of the leaves and fruits of deprivation. Those who focus their energies on decrying the excesses of finance and industry, without properly attending to matters of dispossession and denigration, are only interested in plucking the bitter leaves and sweet fruits off that toxic plant, leaving its roots and stems intact.

Deprivation is a tip rooting bramble. Dispossessions are at the root of all deprivations, yes, but denigrations are their tip-rooting thorny stems, issuing new roots when they touch down upon suitable ground. 

Chief among the deepest and most enduring roots of modern deprivation are its settler colonial roots; and chief among those thorny stems of modern deprivation that have tipped over most prodigiously and generated new roots over and over again are its anti-Black stems. But the settler colonial roots of modern deprivation are by no means the only roots: consider, for instance, the dispossessions effected by the enclosure movements in Britain during the 18th and 19th centuries. Similarly, the anti-Black stems of modern deprivation are by no means the only stems: consider, for instance, how the social categories of religion and caste were reworked by the British colonial census bureau to further the denigration of sub-populations of Britain’s colonized subjects in India. 

Nevertheless, the settler colonial roots and anti-Black stems of modern deprivation are among the most well-established and fiercely opportunistic roots and stems. Those with any proximity to settler colonialism and anti-blackness must confront them directly if they seriously intend to confront and counter (post)modern deprivation. Those without proximity should confront similarly well-established and fiercely opportunistic roots and stems that are within their reach, like the enduring legacies of the enclosures in England and the caste system in India. Ay, we must all strike at and clear away such roots and stems or else be suffocated by them.