McDonald's Blueprint for Commodifying Justice
Unpacking the corporate co-option of social movements with Dr. Marcia Chatelain, author of Pulitzer Prize-winning book Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America.
Is there a place for justice movements inside the confines of capitalism?
During this week’s episode of Art of Citizenry Podcast, I am joined by Dr. Marcia Chatelain, historian and author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America. Together, we dig into the intersections of civil rights, economic justice, and corporate accountability, exploring how the pursuit of liberation has too often been commodified under the guise of economic empowerment.
Dr. Chatelain reminds us that food justice isn’t just about what’s on our plates – it’s about the systems shaping access, health, and community power. We discuss how corporations like McDonald’s embedded themselves in Black communities by co-opting civil rights advocacy, reshaping not only economic life but also the very language of empowerment and progress.
“McDonald’s has helped determine–for better or for worse–where we live, what we eat, and how we fight for justice.”
This conversation takes us beyond individual choices and into the systemic structures that dictate our options:
The American blueprint for corporate co-optation of justice movements
The pitfalls of framing entrepreneurship and capitalism as a blueprint to freedom
How DEI and corporate “justice” strategies are often inseparable from profit motives
From the civil rights era to today, we unpack the corporate playbook: social movements absorbed, monetized, and repackaged as market opportunities.
🎧 Tune in as we ask the deeper questions – who profits, what gets repackaged as justice, and how do we reclaim community power in a system designed to commodify it?
Meet Our Guest
Dr. Marcia Chatelain is a professor of Africana Studies at the University of Pennsylvania and the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book, Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America.
“I want us to think critically about conceding our political power to corporations.” — Dr. Marcia Chatelain
📚 “Franchise is about the moment after King’s assassination when there was a national question as to what the direction of Black freedom struggles would be, and many people answered that by saying the direction would be that of business and industry. So this is the story about how McDonald’s benefited from a pivot in the civil rights struggle.”
Get Marcia Chatelain’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book, Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America.
Black Capitalism
To understand the role of Black capitalism, we must first situate it in its historical context as both a response to and a strategy within the systemic exclusion of Black Americans from the U.S. economy.
“Capitalism is so seductive because it can make you believe that the opportunity for economic prosperity for some is equivalent to justice for all.” — Dr. Marcia Chatelain
Black capitalism re-emerged in the late 1960s as a strategic response to growing social unrest in Black communities—a way to promise progress without confronting the structural roots of racial inequality. Rather than challenging segregation, discriminatory lending, or systemic dis-investment, it framed community empowerment through entrepreneurship and market participation.
“Because McDonald’s was so hasty in embracing the Black capitalism solution to post-1968 urban unrest and calls for racial and economic justice, they wrote themselves into a civil rights narrative almost immediately.”
— Dr. Marcia Chatelain
Black capitalism was frequently used as a political tool to promote bootstrap narratives while sidestepping demands for reparative justice and state accountability. The model promised empowerment, but actually just sought market participation without confronting the racist economic systems that created the need for it in the first place.
How McDonald’s Commodified Justice
McDonald’s is frequently cited as one of the first companies to strategically identify and target untapped segments of the market. Particularly the Black community, which had been historically left out of the marketing strategies of most corporations. But what often gets overlooked is how a business decision, one rooted in profit and expansion, can later be reframed as a DEI initiative.
“McDonald’s would like to tell it as a story of benevolence and a story of social progress. But what it ultimately is, is a story of racialized market segmentation that was very successful and made people lots and lots of money.”
— Dr. Marcia Chatelain
Capitalism masked as entrepreneurship is not a sufficient path to liberation, especially when that participation reproduces the very systems that limit self-determination.
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