Carlos Cabana, head of equity sales and trading at CastleOak, dubs the room a “diversity pool,” because the participants are all minority-operated brokerage firms. While in this instance CastleOak doesn’t know specifically who is on the other side of every trade, it knows it will be one of about 10 counterparties who meet certain eligibility criteria related to ownership and investment goals.
I am convinced that they only added this bit to make sure people would argue about skin color and ignore the implications of the rich making sure the peasants aren't allowed to play the same game as them.
It's far more likely that it's a tongue in cheek inside joke than it is they care what outsiders think. Or it's an internal reference that's a dig at someone or something and was never meant to be made public (these firms are small enough this kind of stuff can happen). Non-consumer facing finance is just about the least diversity conscious industry ever. They only care about green.
I am convinced that they only added this bit to make sure people would argue about skin color and ignore the implications of the rich making sure the peasants aren't allowed to play the same game as them.