CULTIVATING A PROFESSIONAL POSE:

2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (02) ◽  
pp. 517-532
Author(s):  
Brandon A. Jackson
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Predominantly White ◽  
Black Men ◽  
White Middle Class ◽  
White Institution ◽  
Success Group ◽  
Group Members ◽  
And Behaviors

AbstractIn this article I investigate how a group of Black men in college worked together to learn and practice the professional pose—professional styles and behaviors meant to navigate professional settings. I argue that these behaviors were adopted to preempt any potential discriminatory acts and would ideally disassociate them from the negative labels associated with Black men. Specifically, I examine how leaders of the group Uplift and Progress (UP) prepared other members and recruits by teaching them how to present themselves as professional Black men who were familiar with White middle-class practices. To further encourage their success, group members sought out opportunities to practice these styles in public. By cultivating this professional pose, they were able to claim their place at a White institution and distance themselves from the unfavorable stereotypes of Black men. This strategy also bolstered their reputation on campus and would ideally prepare them for the predominantly White workplace.

I Fight for a Living

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louis Moore
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Black Men ◽  
Jim Crow ◽  
Black Middle Class ◽  
White Middle Class ◽  
Sporting Culture ◽  
Collective Group ◽  
White Manhood ◽  
Jim Crow Era

At its heart, I Fight for a Living is a book about black men who came of age in the Reconstruction and early Jim Crow era--a time when the remaking of white manhood was at its most intense, placing vigor and physicality at the center of the construction of manliness. The book uses the stories of black fighters’ lives, from 1880 to 1915, to explore how working-class black men used prizefighting and the sporting culture to assert their manhood in a country that denied their equality, and to examine the reactions by the black middle class and white middle class toward these black fighters. Through these stories, the book explores how the assertion of this working-class manliness confronted American ideas of race and manliness. While other works on black fighters have explored black boxers as individuals, this book seeks to study these men as a collective group while providing a localized and racialized response to black working-class manhood. It was a tough bargain to risk one’s body to prove manhood, but black men across the globe took that chance.

Humor Orgies as Ritual Insult

2016 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 108-132 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott Patrick Murphy
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
Southern California ◽  
Group Solidarity ◽  
White Middle Class ◽  
Group Members

In-group members can display a sense of solidarity by earning license to direct verbal putdowns toward one another in the presence of others. An explanation of the process by which in-group members can maintain a sense of solidarity through putdowns in everyday life, however, is lacking in the literature. Set in a corner donut shop in southern California, this article describes how a group of old straight white middle-class men direct improvisational putdowns toward each other and explains how this banter maintains a sense of group solidarity for these men. The article puts forth a view of ritual insult in the form of “humor orgies” as emergent interactional phenomena characterized by successive, situation-dependent turns whereby group members play with interpersonal meanings in “givin’ it” “on top” and “takin’ it” “on bottom.” The findings raise questions about the extent to which superiority theories of humor are adequate and also suggest a need for ethnographies of everyday improvisational humor in public, non-workplace settings.

Bonds of Brotherhood

2012 ◽  
Vol 642 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-71 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brandon A. Jackson
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Predominantly White ◽  
Black Men ◽  
Social Worlds

This article draws on two years of observation to analyze the ways in which a group of black men promoted, ritualized, enforced, and enacted brotherhood on a predominantly white campus. These men utilized the concept of brotherhood to unite those who shared a marginalized status. The notion of brotherhood enabled the men to express their emotions, violating some of the dominant cultural tenets of manhood. Although black men face many obstacles in white-dominated middle-class social worlds, these men did not passively accept those troubles; they came together and collectively created a brotherhood to help them survive and succeed.

“‘No Tough Guys Here?’: Hybrid Masculinity in a Boxing Gym”

2021 ◽  
pp. 089124162098558
Author(s):  
Watoii Rabii
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Predominantly White ◽  
Hegemonic Masculinity ◽  
White Collar ◽  
White Middle Class ◽  
It Employees

In this article, I explore manifest and latent discourses about masculinity in a predominantly white, middle class boxing gym. In this gym, the owner and coaches promote a discourse that emphasizes love, bridgework, and sparring with care. This discourse is part of the gym’s white-collar boxing culture. A key part of this discourse is distancing themselves from other gyms, claiming they promote a violent masculinity. While on the surface the gym criticizes certain ideals and practices associated with American hegemonic masculinity, it still reproduces discourses, norms, and practices associated with it. Employees use a latent discourse that constructs a hybrid masculinity. I argue that employees and members construct a hybrid masculinity by perpetuating ideals and practices associated with American hegemonic masculinity.

scholarly journals Trajectories of Marital Satisfaction in Diverse Newlywed Couples

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 597-604 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hannah C. Williamson ◽  
Justin A. Lavner
Keyword(s):  
Marital Satisfaction ◽  
Middle Class ◽  
Predominantly White ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Ethnically Diverse ◽  
Marital Stability ◽  
White Middle Class ◽  
Sociodemographic Risk

Couples’ marital satisfaction is thought to decline over the newlywed years, but recent research indicates that the majority of spouses have high, stable trajectories during this period, and significant declines occur only among initially dissatisfied spouses. These findings are drawn from predominantly White, middle-class samples, however, which may overestimate marital stability compared to samples with higher levels of sociodemographic risk. Accordingly, the current study tested the generalizability of newlyweds’ marital stability by examining satisfaction trajectories among 431 ethnically diverse newlywed couples living in low-income neighborhoods. Consistent with previous work, most spouses had high levels of satisfaction, substantial declines were limited to spouses with lower initial levels of satisfaction, and divorce significantly differed between groups. Wives with higher levels of sociodemographic risk started marriage less satisfied and declined more in satisfaction. Overall, these findings reveal risky and resilient relationships among disadvantaged couples, with considerable stability during the newlywed years.

Doing Identity Work and Risky Endeavors? A Qualitative Research Synthesis of Predominantly White, Middle-Class Parents’ Decision Making in the Context of Urban School Choice

2017 ◽  
Vol 51 (1) ◽  
pp. 72-98 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott Ellison ◽  
Ariel M. Aloe
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Qualitative Research ◽  
School Choice ◽  
Middle Class ◽  
Predominantly White ◽  
Urban Schools ◽  
Research Synthesis ◽  
Identity Work ◽  
Urban Core ◽  
White Middle Class

The inversion hypothesis popularized by Ehrenhalt posits that recent urban migration trends in the United States constitute a reversal of the late 20th-century model of middle-class White flight to the suburbs and an urban core inhabited by a mostly working-class, minority population. The hypothesized blurring of the urban–suburban divide has led to calls that policymakers must seize the opportunity to foster racially and economically diverse urban schools before the inversion process is complete with the assumption that doing so will lead to more equitable educational opportunities. The aim of this study is to gain insight into the possibility of fostering racially and economically integrated urban schools in the context of school choice through a qualitative research synthesis of the decision making processes of predominantly White, middle-class families in the urban core as they make school choices. Findings from this research indicate that the decision making of parents in the studies sampled for this synthesis are bound up with their identity work as “city people”; that parents who go “against the grain” in choosing an urban public school perceive that choice to be a risky decision; and that those risks are mitigated by their access to cultural, social, and economic capital.

scholarly journals Oh…So close! Children’s close counterfactual reasoning and emotion inferences

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tiffany Doan ◽  
Ori Friedman ◽  
Stephanie Denison
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Predominantly White ◽  
Counterfactual Reasoning ◽  
White Middle Class ◽  
Alternative Outcome ◽  
Children's Emotion

How we feel about an outcome often depends on how close an alternative outcome was to occurring. In four experiments, we investigated whether predominantly White, middle-class, Canadian children (N = 425, Experiments 1-3) and American adults (N = 227, Experiment 4) consider close counterfactual alternatives when inferring other people’s emotions. In Experiment 1, 6-year-olds (but not 4- and 5-year-olds) inferred that an agent would feel sadder about winning a mediocre prize if she later found out that a more attractive one could have easily been won. However, children of all ages failed to judge whether the better outcome could have easily happened. In Experiment 2, when 5- and 6-year-olds knew the locations of the prizes beforehand, they inferred that an agent would be equally happy about winning a mediocre prize regardless if she almost won a better prize or not. Again, they did not recognize when the better outcome was a close counterfactual possibility. In Experiment 3, we included extra cues to the closeness of the alternative and both 5- and 6-year-olds inferred that she would feel sadder about winning a mediocre prize, and 6-year-olds acknowledged that the attractive prize was a close counterfactual alternative. In Experiment 4, adults considered close counterfactuals when inferring emotions. Our findings suggest that close counterfactuals influence children’s emotion inferences before they become able to acknowledge their closeness.

NCOBPS Fifty Years

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 132-135
Author(s):  
William J. Daniels
Keyword(s):  
Predominantly White ◽  
Black Student ◽  
Personal Narrative ◽  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Protest ◽  
Predominantly White Institution ◽  
Significant Events ◽  
White Institution ◽  
The 1960S

This personal narrative recounts the experiences of an NCOBPS founder, who discusses significant events in his life from student to faculty that motivated his professional journey, including his participation in the founding of NCOBPS. It reflects on what it meant to be a black student, and later, a black faculty member teaching at a predominantly white institution in the political science discipline in the 1960s. It also provides a glimpse into how the freedom movements shaped his fight for fundamental rights as a citizen. Finally, it gives credence to the importance of independent black organizations as agents for political protest and vehicles for economic and social justice.

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