Résumés
Abstract
Indigenous Bolivians, especially women, are climbing the ranks of global multilevel marketing (MLM) companies like Herbalife, Omnilife, and Hinode, seeking to join Bolivia’s purportedly rising Indigenous middle class. Through MLMs, Indigenous direct sales distributors pursue a dignified life materialized in better homes, smart dressing, international travel, and the respect they receive at recruitment events. In their recruitment and sales pitches to potential buyers and downline vendors, Indigenous distributors fashion testimonials about their successes that explicitly critique existing avenues of class mobility and their racialization in two ways. First, these testimonials counter the skepticism that multilevel marketing companies face by citing a litany of false promises offered by higher education, salaried employment, and public sector jobs—avenues long heralded as the stepping stones to entwined racial and class mobility in Bolivia. They further voice their frustrations with perceived status hierarchies and organizational barriers among Indigenous merchants, highlighting their own sense of alienation from the connections and protections that have enabled the financial success of other Indigenous entrepreneurs. Second, while lodging these critiques, distributors repurpose racialization toward their own recruitment ends. As MLM distributors pursue their visions of the good life, the testimonials that Indigenous MLM recruiters craft to enable their ascent expose, rely on, and rework the bounds of racial capitalism. Ultimately, their critiques reveal how the racial partitioning that enables capitalist extraction operates through the work of direct sales.
Keywords:
- Racial capitalism,
- class,
- racialization,
- Andes,
- indigeneity,
- multilevel marketing
Résumé
Les Autochtones boliviens, en particulier les femmes, gravissent les échelons des sociétés mondiales de marketing à plusieurs niveaux (MLM) telles que Herbalife, Omnilife et Hinode, cherchant à rejoindre la classe moyenne autochtone bolivienne prétendument en plein essor. Par le biais des MLM, les distributeurs autochtones de vente directe aspirent à une vie digne, matérialisée par de meilleures maisons, des vêtements élégants, des voyages internationaux et le respect qu’ils reçoivent lors des évènements de recrutement. Dans leurs discours de recrutement et de vente aux acheteurs potentiels et aux vendeurs en aval, les distributeurs autochtones mettent en scène des témoignages de leur réussite qui critiquent explicitement les voies existantes de la mobilité de classe et leur racialisation, et ce de deux manières. Tout d’abord, ces témoignages contrecarrent le scepticisme auquel sont confrontées les sociétés de marketing à plusieurs niveaux en citant une litanie de fausses promesses offertes par l’enseignement supérieur, l’emploi salarié et les emplois du secteur public – des domaines longtemps considérés comme les tremplins de la mobilité raciale et de classe en Bolivie. En outre, ils expriment leurs frustrations face aux hiérarchies de statut et aux barrières organisationnelles perçues parmi les commerçants autochtones, soulignant leur propre sentiment de marginalisation par rapport aux relations et aux protections qui ont permis la réussite financière d’autres entrepreneurs autochtones. En second, tout en tenant compte de ces critiques, les distributeurs réaffectent la racialisation à leurs propres fins de recrutement. Alors que les distributeurs de marketing à plusieurs niveaux poursuivent leur vision de la bonne vie, les témoignages que les recruteurs autochtones de marketing à plusieurs niveaux élaborent pour permettre leur ascension exposent les limites du capitalisme racial, s’appuient sur elles et les retravaillent. Finalement, leurs critiques révèlent comment le cloisonnement racial qui permet l’extraction capitaliste opère à travers le travail de la vente directe.
Mots-clés :
- Capitalisme racial,
- classe,
- racialisation,
- Andes,
- autochtonie,
- marketing à plusieurs niveaux
Parties annexes
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