"Race" as an Interaction Order Phenomenon: W.E.B. Du Bois's "Double Consciousness" Thesis Revisited

This article reports on a study of interaction between Americans who self-identify as Black and White that reveals underlying expectations with regard to conversation that differ between the two groups. These differences seem not to have much to do with class or gender, but rather vary largely accor...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Sociological theory 2000-07, Vol.18 (2), p.241-274
Main Author: Rawls, Anne Warfield
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
African American culture
African Americans
Black American people
Black communities
Communities
Consciousness
Cultures and civilizations
Du Bois, W E B
Ethnic relations. Racism
Ethnicity
Honesty
Identity
Language
Presentation of self
Race
Self
Self-perception
Social construction
Social interaction
Sociological theories
Sociology
U.S.A
USA
W.E.B. Du Bois
White people
Workplaces
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Summary:This article reports on a study of interaction between Americans who self-identify as Black and White that reveals underlying expectations with regard to conversation that differ between the two groups. These differences seem not to have much to do with class or gender, but rather vary largely according to self-identification by "race." The argument of this paper will be that the social phenomena of "race" are constructed at the level of interaction whenever Americans self-identified as Black and White speak to one another. This is because the Interaction Order expectations with regard to both self and community vary between the two groups. Because the "language games" and conversational "preferences" practiced by the two groups are responsive to different Interaction Orders, the "working consensus" is substantially different, and as a consequence, conversational "moves" are not recognizably the same. It will be argued that a great deal of institutional discrimination against African Americans can be traced to this source.
ISSN:0735-2751
1467-9558
DOI:10.1111/0735-2751.00097