Finally, we should always bear in mind that a good deal of the benefits of democratization are not available to the poorest strata, or not available to the same degree, because of the difficulties they have in navigating the bureaucratic hurdles. Democracy is about treating all people equally - in terms of power, in terms of distribution, in terms of opportunity for personal fulfillment. Racism both defines the groups and simultaneously offers a specious justification for the practice. Racism is not a secondary issue, either on a national or a world scale. It is the mode by which the liberal center's promise of universalistic criteria is systematically, deliberately, and constantly undermined.
Racism is pervasive throughout the existing world-system.
No corner of the globe is without it, and without it as a central feature of local, national, and world politics. And if today we are indigenous women, tomorrow we will the others, men and women, who are dead, persecuted, or imprisoned because of their difference. The crucial thing wrong with the capitalist system is not private ownership, which is simply a means, but commodification which is the essential element in the accumulation of capital. Even today, the capitalist world-system is not entirely commodified, although there are efforts to make it so. But we could in fact move in the other direction.