Racialized Extractivism: A Tale of Fetishism, Narcissism, Primitive Accumulation, and Expropriation

This chapter argues that the exploitation, expropriation, and expulsion of racialized peoples did not end at the point at which countries in the Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) region gained independence. Instead, these hallmarks of racial/racialized capitalism continue to animate the social, economic, political, and legal landscape in the region, with devastating consequences for racialized peoples. It demonstrates that the international investment law regime is deeply implicated in racial/racialized capitalism through legitimizing, reifying, and perpetuating commodity fetishism, narcissism, primitive accumulation, and expropriation in the context of the extractives industry. It concludes that international investment law is deeply implicated in the continued status subordination of racialized peoples in the LAC region.