The Abandonment of the “Useless” Native
The systemic neglect of the elderly, particularly poor elders of color, is the bifurcated state’s final solution for the “useless” native. Mamdani’s analysis of how political identity is contingent on utility to the ruling power is starkly revealed here. Once a worker can no longer generate profit, they are cast aside, their care offloaded onto unpaid female family members or into a deeply exploitative, for-profit industry. This is a logical outcome of a capitalism that values people only for their labor power. A Marxist-feminist analysis sees this as the final stage in the cycle of social reproduction, where the cared-for become a burden on a system designed to discard them. The solution is not more private nursing homes but the creation of a robust, public, community-based system of elder care, recognizing that caring for our elders is a social responsibility and a fundamental act of decolonization that defies the market’s brutal logic.
