Aleph, UCLA Undergraduate Research Journal for the Humanities and Social Sciences

Racialized Neoliberalism is resculpting the fabric of Southern California’s Inland Empire. Riverside and San Bernardino Counties, located directly east of Los Angeles, encompass the largest hub of warehousing and logistics in the United States. These warehouses serve key roles in the supply chains of companies such as Walmart and Amazon. This project attends to the disproportionate placement of warehouses in communities of color, analyzes the discourse of local politicians who support these neoliberal developments and focuses on the experiences of youth (aged 18-22) who are pushed into warehouse work. By illuminating the impact that warehouses have on youth in the Inland Empire through interviews, this project argues that neoliberal economic developments do not empower but, rather, harm minoritized communities. This generational impact is reflected in young workers’ experiences of social mobility, wage slavery, and time poverty. Through Convenience Sampling and Nomination Recruitment Strategy, this project interviewed young warehouse workers. Dedoose software is employed to utilize a codebook for the interviews averaging 45 minutes. This research addresses how logistics impacts the lives of young warehouse workers.