"The Business of Racism uses the lens of racial capitalism to examine struggles over value, power, and hierarchy in Brazils agribusiness sector. From colonialism to the present-day, racial capitalism has structured agribusiness, with the fates of Black and Brown workers and the ecosystem linked through labor and environmental abuses. Ian Carrillo examines how structural racism, class exploitation, and environmental degradation are entangled in plantation profit-making. Focusing on the period between 1995-2020, The Business of Racism describes progressive efforts by the state to bring new oversight to labor and environmental activities in agribusiness, and the reactionary countermovement by agribusiness elites to reverse such policies and reclaim their racial and class authority. Carrillo draws on interviews with over ninety federal labor regulators and agribusiness elites, as well as ethnographic observations at agribusiness worksites. The Business of Racism describes how elites of Brazils sugar-ethanol industry undertook strategic and successful efforts to undermine progressive institutions and elevate their own leaders. Carrillo thus narrates the growing polarization between the market and the state that opened the door for the (de)regulation of Brazilian labor and environmental laws"-- Provided by publisher.