From the racialization of finance to the financing of anti-racism: Tracing the US financial industry’s investments in closing the racial wealth gap

Emily Rosenman
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Emily Rosenman: Department of Geography, Penn State University, University Park, PA, USA

Environment and Planning A, 2024, vol. 56, issue 1, 253-269

Abstract: This paper examines profit-seeking investments that US financial industry actors have made in the name of racial justice since the summer of 2020. This trend, which builds on the proposition of “sustainable†finance that private profits and social benefits can coexist, is known in the industry as racial justice investing . To understand how the industry frames racial justice as an object of financial intervention, I draw from theories of social reproduction, racial capitalism, and social finance to analyze the historical and contemporary processes through which racial in justice is conceived in economic terms as a “gap†between the wealth of white and racialized households. Then, I analyze the political economy of these investments, focusing on how solutions to the wealth gap are oriented around extending credit and economic inclusion to racialized households and business owners. Ultimately I illustrate how the financial industry’s investments in closing the racial wealth gap largely sidestep questions of power and, paradoxically, justice that animate many contemporary racial justice movements.

Keywords: Wealth; social reproduction; racial capitalism; finance; racial justice (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:envira:v:56:y:2024:i:1:p:253-269

DOI: 10.1177/0308518X231212076

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