Economic Justice is the Foundation of True Liberation
Nick Cave (b. 1959, Fulton, MO; lives and works in Chicago, IL), Soundsuit Series
The phrase “follow the money” suggests tracing financial transactions to uncover the true motives, power structures, or sources of influence behind a situation. It implies that money reveals underlying truths—whether in politics, business, crime, or social issues—because the way money flows often exposes corruption, systemic inequality, or hidden agendas. Well, if you look at who's funding policies like tax laws, housing and labor laws, healthcare policies, and environmental regulations, it’s pretty clear whose interests are being protected.
Social Justice Starts with the Economy
Social justice is often seen as a fight for fairness–a fight to dismantle inequities and ensure that everyone has access to the same opportunities, rights, and privileges—regardless of race, class, or background. But social justice is fundamentally about the economy. It’s about who controls the wealth, who has access to the opportunities to build it, and who gets to dictate the rules. And in the face of all the systems designed to exclude and extract, Black communities have been dreaming new worlds into existence—worlds where justice isn’t a theoretical goal but a lived experience.
True justice isn’t something folks can sit around and wait for. The question is not just how to fight and resist, but how to build. What if the economy wasn’t a tool of oppression? What if it could be rebuilt to actually serve Black and other disempowered communities?
The Economy Touches Every Part of Life
Access to housing, education, healthcare, and safety is shaped by the economy—but Black communities have long been reimagining economic systems, well before “economic justice” became a widely recognized term. When people are denied jobs that pay a living wage, when communities are stripped of their wealth through wage disparities, discriminatory lending practices, or policies like redlining, or when basic needs like food and shelter are out of reach—Black communities have found ways to survive, thrive, and build from those places of scarcity.
Take housing. Redlining might’ve blocked Black communities from traditional routes of building wealth through homeownership, but Black people have created alternative economic systems through mutual aid societies (as early as the 1700s!), informal economies, and underground markets that challenge the very notion of wealth being a privilege reserved for a select few. Building cultural and communal wealth didn’t stop when homes were stolen or devalued—it just transformed into something more expansive.
Take education. Underfunded schools? Yeah–not accidents. But Black communities have always found a way to create educational pathways for themselves and their children. Whether it’s through Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Black-run schools, or community-led initiatives, the focus has always been on nurturing and preserving knowledge that’s rooted in history, legacy, and possibilities.
The Stock Market, War, and Extraction
Let’s talk about the stock market for a minute. The stock market is often seen as this far-off, elite institution–like a buttoned-up gaming house for the rich. But it’s more than being a tool for how wealthy folks grow their wealth. It’s a machine of extraction. It profits from war, environmental destruction, mass incarceration (private prisons), and labor exploitation (including prison labor). Conflict means cash. The more wars there are, the more the stock market tends to boom. Weapons manufacturers, defense contractors, and even the tech companies providing surveillance technologies—are all seeing their stock prices surge when wars escalate. They get paid while communities get decimated. And guess who’s behind those profits? Wealthy investors who will never have to see the fallout they’re funding.
And, while it’s true that war and resource extraction often fill the pockets of a select few, it’s important to recognize that Black communities have always been deeply embedded in and connected to global economic systems, even when they weren’t the ones benefiting from them. Whether it’s the exploitation of Black bodies through slavery or the continuing extraction of wealth from Black labor and ingenuity, it’s evident how these systems of extraction operate. But, Black communities have been building counter-narratives, networks, and strategies for self-determination in response.
Consider the connection between war and profit. While the elite profit from the violence they’ve created, Black communities have always resisted these cycles of destruction through collective action. Whether it’s through organizing against the military-industrial complex or advocating for peace, Black communities have consistently held space for anti-war movements rooted in solidarity and peace throughout history and refused to let these oppressive systems continue unchallenged.
When it comes to resource extraction industries–oil, mining, agriculture—all of it is built on taking from the land, displacing Indigenous and Black communities, and literally wrecking the planet, all to fill the pockets of a few. They’re cashing in while disempowered communities pay the price. The whole economy is rigged to reward this destruction. That’s why in order to work towards justice, these systems of profit-driven harm need to be torn down and a reparative economy must be built in its stead–one that values people and the planet over profits.
Financial Knowledge: Gatekept by Design
It’s important to recognize that the financial system itself isn’t neutral. It was never designed for Black and other disempowered communities to thrive in. The barriers aren’t about knowledge. The so-called "financial literacy” gap is really about access. White communities may not be any more financially literate than Black or brown communities, but they have access to wealth managers, financial advisors, and resources that are unavailable (especially generationally) to communities of color. White folks aren’t necessarily better at understanding the system—they just have the means to hire the people who do.
High fees, minimum investment requirements, and a lack of accessible financial advisors—these barriers are built into the system to ensure the same people keep winning. An economically empowered Black community? That’s a direct threat to the system. What’s key is remembering that financial freedom isn’t just about individual wealth; it’s about collective power, too. An informed and economically empowered Black community threatens the very structure of capitalism as it exists today.
The Lending Gap and the Need for Reparative Capital
When it comes to building wealth, access to capital is one of the most essential factors. But for Black entrepreneurs, accessing that capital doesn’t come easy. Traditional banks and financial institutions have long been reluctant to lend to Black-owned businesses, leaving entrepreneurs with limited options. This systemic underfunding, which has persisted for generations, is a direct consequence of racist banking practices and discriminatory lending policies. Black business owners are often denied loans or charged higher interest rates, even when they have the same qualifications and financial histories as their white counterparts.
Banks claim to be in the business of creating opportunities, yet when it comes to Black communities, they’ve chosen to perpetuate cycles of disinvestment. This is why a shift is required in how capital is distributed. Reparative capital—a form of financing aimed at healing past economic wrongs—can provide the resources and support that Black businesses need to thrive. Reparative capital reimagines the relationship between capital and community. It’s about recognizing that the wealth created through Black labor, innovation, and resilience has been stolen and used to benefit others and that now it’s time for those same systems to make amends.
Rather than continuing to rely on a banking system that has failed Black communities, reparative finance models that allow Black-owned businesses to access the resources they need to succeed need to be made abundant. Reparative capital works in partnership with Black entrepreneurs, understanding their needs, their goals, and their vision for the future. It creates an economy where Black wealth-building is a central part of the story.
Reimagining an Economy Rooted in Justice and Equity
Economic justice must be at the center of all social justice movements. It’s about more than just tweaking policies here and there. What’s needed is a radical overhaul of how resources are distributed. Reparations, universal healthcare, wealth redistribution, cooperative economics, reparative capital, and reinvestment in Black and brown communities. These are not simply ideas. They are necessities.
The economy isn’t some abstract concept. It’s the very thing that determines access to everything we need to live. Social justice can only be fully realized when the economic factors that shape inequality are addressed. It’s not just about fighting for policy changes. It’s about fighting for an entirely new economic reality—one where justice is the force that’s driving how resources are shared. Only then will there be a world where justice, equity, and liberation are the lived experiences of everyone.
This article doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface of the full breadth of social justice issues—from healthcare and housing inequities to environmental racism and immigration policies to the prison-industrial complex. But at the core of it all, the same truth remains: every fight for justice ultimately ties back to the economy and the systems that determine who has access to resources, who is exploited, and who is left behind.
The Runway Team
About the Artist: Nick Cave (b. 1959, Fulton, MO; lives and works in Chicago, IL) is an artist, educator and foremost a messenger, working between the visual and performing arts through a wide range of mediums including sculpture, installation, video, sound and performance. Cave is well known for his Soundsuits, sculptural forms based on the scale of his body, initially created in direct response to the police beating of Rodney King in 1991. Soundsuits camouflage the body, masking and creating a second skin that conceals race, gender and class, forcing the viewer to look without judgment. They serve as a visual embodiment of social justice that represent both brutality and empowerment.
