In middle school I learned about imports and exports and, as a suburban kid, I realized that I didn't know anyone who made physical products, and wondered, how can we have nice things without making things in return? Then i found out it was all exploitation and it always has been
I came here to say exactly this. Before fully comprehending imperialism, I found it really difficult to understand why poor countries existed. Even more difficult to explain was why poor countries stayed poor. Subliminal discrimination and racism can definitely play a part here, but even then it can't explain why those countries are still poor after almost a century of "help" from the west.
Also, explaining why the wars in the middle east happened is difficult without imperialism.
Century of help my ass. A hundred years of shitty reparitions isnt going to magically cure hundreds of years of systematic exploitation.
There's a reason I put help in quotations, and it's sarcasm. The "aid" (again, pls read sarcasm) western nations give to third world countries is exploitation.
When we went to war with Iraq, their economy was absolutely destroyed. The US then conveniently decided to help Iraq "rebuild." We then gave them billions in aid, on the condition that they sell off their state owned enterprises to american capitalists. (This is an extreme simplification, but you get the point. Naomi Klein's The Shock Doctrine does a good job of explaining the process of economic imperialisation through implementing Friedmanite economic policies during times of crisis).
Capitalist nations will NEVER provide aid just because a country needs it, they'll only offer it if there's something to gain.