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Walking the Intraracial Tightrope: Balancing Exclusion and Inclusion within an Elite Black Social Club

Guzman, Joseph Andrew
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1522856449666485

Abstract Details

2018, Master of Arts, Ohio State University, Sociology.
How social groups manage inclusion and exclusion is fundamental to sociology. This tension is especially complex for segments of marginalized groups on the edges of social integration. Historically, middle- and upper-class African Americans have formed social organizations in response to racial exclusion. Seeking acceptance into the white world has nevertheless caused Black elites to engage in intraracial demarcation, distinguishing themselves from their lower-class counterparts and potentially hindering within-group solidarity. In the post-Civil Rights era, racism persists and the Black elite experience intraracial isolation and its associated negative emotional outcomes. How do a tightly managed affiliation, and other aspects of boundary work, play out in private Black spaces? Drawing on 40 observations of an elite African American men’s social club and 20 interviews with individual members in addition to theoretical insights from race and boundary work scholarship this paper explores how the Black elite negotiates the tensions of exclusion and inclusion within their social organizational life. Boundary work remains relevant in these settings, but exclusivity must be carefully managed in consideration of organizational sustenance and a sense of class-informed racial belonging. I propose a theory of intraracial collective assimilation to explain how Black elites use racially homogenous spaces to affirm both class and racial identities in the production of emotional strength.
Townsand Price-Spratlen (Committee Co-Chair)
Vincent Roscigno (Committee Co-Chair)
Rachel Dwyer (Committee Member)
Kara Young (Committee Member)
44 p.
African American Studies; Sociology

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Guzman, J. A. (2018). Walking the Intraracial Tightrope: Balancing Exclusion and Inclusion within an Elite Black Social Club [Master's thesis, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1522856449666485

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Guzman, Joseph. Walking the Intraracial Tightrope: Balancing Exclusion and Inclusion within an Elite Black Social Club. 2018. Ohio State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1522856449666485.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Guzman, Joseph. "Walking the Intraracial Tightrope: Balancing Exclusion and Inclusion within an Elite Black Social Club." Master's thesis, Ohio State University, 2018. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1522856449666485

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1522856449666485
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This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.