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Abstract:
This paper explores the ways that Black professionals experience racism in the workplace as a gendered phenomenon. Drawing from in-depth interviews with 23 Black professional workers, I compare the ways that racism is gendered for Black men and for Black women. I also explore the ways that gendered racism constructs responses to racial affronts. I argue that exploring the gendered nature of racism offers a more precise assessment of how racism in the workplace impacts minorities.
Keywords: : gendered racism; Black professionals; controlling images
Studies of how racism affects African Americans constitute a sizable body of die sociological literature on race relations. Research in this ' vein has examined how racism affects African Americans at work, in the educational system, and in everyday life, as well as the overall significance (or lack thereof) of racism for Black Americans (Collins, 1998; Feagin, 1991; Feagin & Sikes, 1996; Ferguson, 2000; , Wilson, 1988). The overwhelming majority of these studies suggest that racism still shapes many, if not most, facets of life for Black Americans. However, these studies often tacitly assume that race generally impacts Black men and women in the same way or fail to take gender differences into account when analyzing the manifestations and effects of racism.
Feminist researchers have attempted to rectify this conceptual limitation by drawing attention to the ways that Black women's experiences with racism are also intertwined with sexism. Thus, studies of Black women in various settings-community organizations, work, public spaces-carefully delineate the intersecting effects of race and gender, noting that both of these categories interact to shape Black women's experiences (Byng, 1998; Gilkes, 1988; Harvey, 2005; Texeira, 2002). However, among the studies of how racism affects African Americans and studies of how race and gender affect Black women, few specifically address how Blacks' experiences with racism differ by gender. In this study, I offer a comparative analysis of the ways Black professional men's and women's experiences with racism in the workplace are gendered.
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
Gender, Race, and Work
Studies of race in the workplace document die extent to which racism plays a role in shaping minorities' experiences in the labor force (Cose, 1993; Higginbotham& Weber, 1997;Tomaskovic-Devey, 1993). Collins (1998) argues that affirmative action policies have produced essential occupational...