Dr. Claud Anderson, YouTube screenshot
Dr. Claud Anderson was recently asked during an interview if Capitalism was “cap.” “Cap” means a lie. While he answered “yes,” without hesitation, Anderson pointed out capitalism, with all its foibles, is the only way for Black people to obtain wealth, and that socialism will never work for Black people.
Anderson is president of PowerNomics Corporation of America, Inc. and The Harvest Institute, Inc. According to his website, PowerNomics is a company that publishes his books and produces multimedia presentations in which Anderson explains his concept, PowerNomics. PowerNomics is the “package of principles and strategies he developed to explain the concept of race and to offer a guide for Black America to become a more economically and politically competitive group in America,” the website states.
Anderson has held political positions, including the highest positions in federal and state government and politics. He was State Coordinator of Education for Florida under Governor Reubin Askew during the 1970s. After successful social reform projects in Florida and leading President Jimmy Carter’s Florida campaign to a win in the state, Carter appointed Anderson as the Federal Co-Chairman for a Commission of governors in the southeast states. In that position, the politically independent Anderson chaired the commission, funded and directed economic development projects for the governors in those states.
Dr. Anderson is also president of the think tank The Harvest Institute, which does research, policy development, education and advocacy to increase the self-sufficiency of Black America.
In an interview with Chico Bean for the show Hell Of A Week on Nov 19, 2021, Anderson broke down how capitalism came about and why socialism isn’t the answer for Black people. The episode is entitled “Is Capitalism Cap? (feat. Chico Bean & Dr. Claud Anderson).”
Capitalism, he said, was “built into the United States Constitution. In 1789, the United States Constitution was the first affirmative action plan…an affirmative action plan primarily for whites. Amendments 1 through 12 is an affirmative action plan for whites, to give them everything they wanted.”
He goes on to explain that capitalism didn’t start until Western slavery.
“We had mercantilism all around the world…where people have just made a product and sold it. There was no system, and so every individual could go out in the mornings into the marketplace and sell his vegetables or sell whatever he wants to sell, shoes or clothes, and that was it. Capitalism came out of Black people, and that’s why it’s a little concerning to me when I hear a lot of professors, particularly on college campuses, talking about anti-capitalism,” said Anderson.
He stressed, “Capitalism is the best thing we got going, and the other opposite of that would be socialism.”
And, socialism, he went on to explain that he feels, is not the path for Black people.
“Capitalism means the private sector owning controlling resources and being able to make a profit,” he explained. “People say, ‘well or. Anderson, let’s go for socialism and just push socialism where the government owns everything and they control everything, and all the profits go straight to the government.”
He had an answer to that argument. “I ran that down in Cuba very few people own anything ever since about the late 1950–no private businesses…a few businesses that exist, you got to be close to a prince or a god to get a business in Cuba,” he said. “That’s why most of those Cubans that came into Miami, they flew out of there right quick because they wanted to practice capitalism, so let’s go back and talk about why capitalism is right.”
Anderson continued to explain the origins of capitalism, and its ties to slavery.
“Capitalism came about because of what happened with Henry the Navigator back in the early 1400s and somewhere between 1445 and 1455 when he picked up almost 16 Black slaves…off the coast of Africa and he brought him back into the European theater.”
Prince Henry the Navigator, or Dom Henrique of Portugal, was a central figure in the early days of the Portuguese Empire and in the 15th-century European maritime discoveries and maritime expansion.
Well, said Anderson, Henry went to the Vatican in Italy and gave the slaves to the Catholic Church and the Vatican. “Catholics had a reputation that time around the world as being as being the religion that was concerned about helping people that needed help and then people that were classified as slaves to be their mediators to bring comfort to the bear comforters…but same time the Catholics were milking them and milking them in the sense that whatever resources they had or they could get out of them,” Anderson said, adding that the Vatican used the slaves for labor for about 47 years.
“Then in about 1488 Pope Innocent came out and with a public edict that says…we no longer have to keep encouraging people to use Indians and and primitive groups for slaves; there’s another group of people that’ll be better at providing labor than the Indians who are weaker people.” The Pope directed the use of Blacks out of Africa as the answer, because of their skin color.
The concept spread, he said to the Americas. And this is when capitalism was born.
“Capitalism is owning and controlling the land, the tools, the resources and using other people’s labor to enrich yourself and our business,” he said.
Dr. Claud Anderson, YouTube screenshot, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPTXzvspccg&t=34s
