Theorizing Gentrification as a Process of Racial Capitalism

Abstract

Academics largely define gentrification based on changes in the class demographics of neighborhood residents from predominately low-income to middle-class. This ignores that gentrification always occurs in spaces defined by both class and race. In this article, I use the lens of racial capitalism to theorize gentrification as a racialized, profit-accumulating process, integrating the perspective that spaces are always racialized to class-centered theories. Using the prior literature on gentrification in the United States, I demonstrate how the concepts of value, valuation, and devaluation from racial capitalism explain where and how gentrification unfolds. Exposure to gentrification varies depending on a neighborhood’s racial composition and the gentrification stakeholders involved, which contributes to racial differences in the scale and pace of change and the implications of those changes for the processes of displacement. Revising our understanding of gentrification to address the racialization of space helps resolve seemingly contradictory findings across qualitative and quantitative studies.

Making Waves: Districts as Policy Mediators in the Flow of School Gentrification

“…To frame this study, we draw on Rucks-Ahidiana’s (2021) theorization of gentrification as a process of racial capitalism, which accounts for the nuanced relationship between racism, capitalism, and gentrification (see also Boyd, 2005; Fallon, 2021; Kent-Stoll, 2020; Moore, 2009; Pattillo, 2010, 2010; Summers, 2019). Drawing on Cedric Robinson’s (2000) germinal work about racial capitalism that critiques traditional Marxism for ignoring race and racism, Rucks-Ahidiana (2021) defines racial capitalism as “an economic system in which race defines value and profit accumulation because capitalism is inherently a racialized system” (p. 2) (see also Kelley, 2017; Melamed, 2015). Racial capitalism thus contends that the value of people, products, and places are based on how they are racialized within a system of racial hierarchy (Kelley, 2017; Robinson, 2000).…”

“…From this perspective, gentrification is thus the result of racial capitalism and the value that is put on people within a particular place cannot be detached from how people and spaces are racialized. Therefore, Rucks-Ahidiana (2021) defines “gentrification as a racialized process of class change” and describes the distinctions between racial change and racialization in gentrification (p. 2). While racial change is not necessarily needed for gentrification to take place, racialization is because “gentrification always occurs in racialized spaces” (Rucks-Ahidiana, 2021, p. 3).…”

“…Therefore, Rucks-Ahidiana (2021) defines “gentrification as a racialized process of class change” and describes the distinctions between racial change and racialization in gentrification (p. 2). While racial change is not necessarily needed for gentrification to take place, racialization is because “gentrification always occurs in racialized spaces” (Rucks-Ahidiana, 2021, p. 3).…”

“…Indeed, the manifestations of gentrification are marked by forms of racial capitalism (Robinson, 2000; Rucks-Ahidiana, 2021). That is, the displacement of Black people and other racialized bodies of color, waves of capital investment into traditionally disinvested Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Asian, and Pacific Islander communities, supply and demand actors, and the racial and socioeconomic restructuring of neighborhoods, and even cities (Boyd, 2005; Lipman, 2013; Moskowitz, 2017; Pedroni, 2011; Posey et al, 2014; Rucks-Ahidiana, 202; Smith & Stovall, 2008).…”

Aquilombamento, Entrepreneurial Black Placemaking in an Anti-Black City

“…4 Moreover, racial capitalism adversely affects Afro-Brazilians’ ability to develop small businesses and generally harms the economy. 5 I use racial capitalism to underscore that racial hierarchies structure every institution, structure, and system in society, including economic systems, market structures, and patterns of commodity exchange (Go 2021; Leong 2013; McMillan Cottom 2020; Robinson 2000; Rucks-Ahidiana 2021). The market is a primary site in which value and resources are assigned and distributed along a racial hierarchy.…”