Basically groups may have physical characteristics. European nations starting from at least the 1500s began using these physical/religious groupings to mark certain groups for predatory expropriation and premature death.

To quote Ruth Wilson Gilmore: “The racial in racial capitalism isn’t secondary, nor did it originate in color or intercontinental conflict, but rather always group-differentiation to premature death. Capitalism requires inequality and racism enshrines it.”[1]

Cedric J. Robinson (among others) have discussed how capitalism and racialization are continually co-created.

1. Abolition Geography and the problem of innocence, in Futures of Black Radicalism.