Ethnoracial Capitalism and the Limits of Ethnic Solidarity

Abstract Based on qualitative data drawn from Latino elites, Latino entrepreneurs, and two Latino banks in Los Angeles, we theorize the concept of ethnoracial capitalism, which occurs within racialized groups when group members commodify ethnicity through the sale of culturally-specific goods or when institutions and services are imbued with ethnicity and assumed to form the basis of profitable financial exchanges. We investigate why Latino elites establish Latino-centric banks, and we draw on the perspectives of Latino-elites and middle- and upper-class entrepreneurs to examine whether shared ethnoracial and class resources breed solidarity between Latino elite-owned and -operated banks and the Latino entrepreneurs they target. We find that structural constraints, the state, and class conflict thwarts the possibility of sustaining banking practices rooted in ethnoracial solidarity. Our research provides insights into the fraught intra-ethnic relationships that can occur within ethnoracial capitalistic endeavors that are situated within racist racial projects, such as the U.S. banking system. Ultimately, the sole presence of capital and ethnic financial institutions in minoritized communities does not remedy economic inequalities born of White supremacist racial projects and racially stratified systems, such as U.S. financial markets.