10.3 Slavery and Racism in the Age of Digital Labour
Capitalism is not just connected to patriarchy but also to racism. When analysing digital capitalism, it is therefore also important to have a look at what forms racism takes in respect to digital media. This section explores this topic in two steps. The first sub-section of this part re-visits debates on the connection of capitalism and racism. The second sub-section builds on this discussion and discusses aspects of racism in the context of digital labour.
10.3.1 Slavery in the Age of Facebook
One of the most important differences between wage-labour, slave-labour, reproductive labour, and Facebook labour concerns their legal status and what makes the workers conduct labour. Slave-workers’ bodies and minds are a private property that the slave-master owns at all time. Slavery is the most reified form of labour, which means that slaves have no rights so that the slave-master can treat them as he pleases and is legally allowed to kill them. So what makes the slave work is in the final instance the fear of being killed or experiencing physical violence. In slavery, “the worker is distinguishable only as instrumentum vocale [vocal instrument] from an animal, which is instrumentum semi-vocale [semi-vocal instrument], and from a lifeless implement, which is instrumentum mutum [silent instrument]” (Marx 1867, 303, footnote 18).
Chapter Ten | Capitalism, Patriarchy, Slavery
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Slavery and Racism in the Age of Digital Labour