Abstract

In a time of growing inequality, analysts and commentators increasingly highlight the unaffordability of everyday living under capitalism as a convenient language for diagnosing today’s problems and devising policy solutions. This article reconsiders the notion of an “affordability crisis” by drawing on Du Bois’ conceptualization of the racial “wage” to theorize the uneven development of markets: a racial stratification process that renders capitalism affordable and livable for some non-elites, often whites, but not others. One of racism’s economic consequences is that it systematically produces affordability crises for market participants on the wrong side of the color line. Drawing on the literature of published studies on white suburbanization combined with historical evidence on the Community Reinvestment movement, this article illustrates the contrasting affordability politics in the homeowner and renter markets, which are divergent both in racial composition and in terms of their affordability to people without wealth. Ultimately, this article explains how and why marginalized groups undertake efforts to politically reconfigure the way markets work from the ground up, albeit through necessarily strained and improvisational means: as in community groups’ appropriation of tax shelters to finance affordable rental housing production, marking a precursor to policies subsequently adopted by mainstream officials and legislators.

中文翻译：

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幸存的资本主义：可负担性作为当代住房市场中种族的“工资”

摘要

在不平等日益加剧的时代，分析家和评论员越来越强调资本主义下日常生活的负担能力，因为它是诊断当今问题和制定政策解决方案的便捷语言。本文通过利用杜波依斯（Du Bois）对种族“工资”的概念化来重新思考“负担能力危机”的概念，以理论化市场的不均衡发展。：种族分层的过程，使某些非精英阶层（通常是白人，而非其他阶层）可以负担得起和宜居的资本主义。种族主义的经济后果之一是，它有系统地为色差线另一侧的市场参与者带来了可负担性危机。本文基于已发表的有关白人郊区化的研究文献以及有关社区再投资运动的历史证据，阐述了房主和房客市场中的可承受性政治形成了鲜明对比，这在种族构成和对无收入者的可承受性方面存在分歧财富。最终，本文解释了边缘化群体如何以及为什么通过政治手段重新配置市场从头开始运作的方式，尽管采取了必要的紧迫和即兴手段：