Elon Musk and the Colonial Commodity

By Anonymous

    


Ian Krein

    The picture I have chosen for this week shows Elon Musk’s response to someone being critical of the US involvement in Bolivia after Evo Morales was ousted, just months before Morales’s party (MAS) would be voted back into power. I chose this picture because I think it does a good job of highlighting the colonial commodity as laid out by Hammer and Park. They write that in order to understand the colonial commodity we must “carefully examine the narratives we construct around these objects, particularly resources and labor existing in neocolonial relationships, which erase and disregard the extractive and exploitative labor practices enmeshed in the object” (Hammer and Park, 233). In their essay, Hammer and Park explain how lithium is a colonial commodity, but this picture highlights how that commodity is treated by domestic business leaders and consumers. Elon Musk plays an important role in the twitter ecosystem, both as the face of Tesla and SpaceX, but also as an independent character. This tweet highlights the complete disregard for the lives of those producing lithium, the capitalist class does not care about Bolivia’s right to self governance, rather they’re only concerned with getting lithium for as cheap as possible. Elon’s disregard provides the masses reassurance “that prevents the coming to terms with the supply chain and its dramatic human and natural toil” (Hammer and Park, 231). Musk has become the de facto figurehead for young capitalists in America, and tweets like this only reinforce the veil that hides colonial exploitation. Nobody questions where Tesla gets their lithium for their cars, and whether or not it comes from Bolivia is irrelevant. The sentiment expressed in this tweet is the subconscious position of most Americans, if we need more lithium we’ll make sure we get it no matter the cost.  



Hammer, Ricarda, and Tina M. Park. “The Ghost in The Algorithm: Racial Colonial Capitalism and the Digital Age.” Global Historical Sociology of Race and Racism, vol. 38, 2021, pp. 221-249.

Parker. Parker on Twitter: "Elon Musk: "We will coup whoever we want! Deal with it." Bolivia just stopped him from mining in their country. I'd say they dealt with it pretty well. https://t.co/5dR0E7wZyh", 19 October 2020, https://twitter.com/panoparker/status/1318157559266762752?lang=en. Accessed 5 May 2022.


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