In this essay the author assesses the relevance of scholarship on racial capitalism for sociological theory. The author highlights three tensions within the existing literature: (1) whether “race” as opposed to other forms of difference is the primary mode of differentiation in capitalism, (2) whether deficiencies in existing theory warrant the new concept “racial capitalism,” and (3) whether the connection between race and capitalism is a contingent or logical necessity. Existing discussions of racial capitalism implicitly or explicitly raise these tensions, but they do not adequately resolve them. Nonetheless, they remain important for generating further theory and research.

在本文中，作者评估了种族资本主义学术与社会学理论的相关性。作者强调了现有文献中的三种张力：（1）相对于其他形式的差异的“种族”是否是资本主义分化的主要方式；（2）现有理论的不足是否需要新概念“种族资本主义”？ （3）种族与资本主义之间的联系是偶然的还是逻辑的必然。现有的关于种族资本主义的讨论暗中或明显地引起了这些紧张关系，但它们并没有充分解决它们。但是，它们对于产生进一步的理论和研究仍然很重要。