The Colorline as Capitalist Accumulation

Abstract

Symposium: Thinking Through Law's Questions of Class, Economics, and Inequality. Before the mark of dispossession, all we have is the skin that holds us. Before the mark, the skin we are in holds all of us in common, and all is common. For possession to enter the world the mark must be made or found ready-made on the skin. The mark, written or found ready-made on the skin, separates those who are to have from those who are to have not. The mark splits the commons. The first commons is the skin we are all in. Before the mark, we are. After the mark, we are white-over-black. This essay argues that the mark is the beginning of property and law.

Keywords: ClassCrit, Jurisprudence