Are Some Emotions Marked "Whites Only"? Racialized Feeling Rules in Professional Workplaces

Much of the research on emotion work in organizations has focused on the ways in which emotional performance reproduces gender inequality. Yet, most of these studies overlook the racial character of professional workplaces and how emotion work is experienced by racial/ethnic minorities. In this arti...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Social problems (Berkeley, Calif.) Calif.), 2010-05, Vol.57 (2), p.251-268
Main Author: Wingfield, Adia Harvey
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
African Americans
Anger
Attorneys
Black people
Criteria
Cultures and civilizations
Emotion
Emotional expression
Emotional states
Emotions
Employees
Employment
Ethnic groups. Acculturation. Cultural identity
Ethnic minorities
Ethnicity
Frustration
Gender
Inequality
Irritation
Minority & ethnic groups
Minority Groups
Occupations
Organizational culture
Professionals
Qualitative analysis
Race
Race Matters
Racial Differences
Racial differentiation
Sexual Inequality
Social research
Sociology
Sociology of work
Sociology of work and sociology of organizations
Tokenism
White people
Whites
Women
Work environment
Work place
Workers
Working population. Employment. Women's work
Workplaces
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Description
Summary:Much of the research on emotion work in organizations has focused on the ways in which emotional performance reproduces gender inequality. Yet, most of these studies overlook the racial character of professional workplaces and how emotion work is experienced by racial/ethnic minorities. In this article, I examine how the normative feeling rules that guide emotional performance in professional workplaces are racialized rather than neutral or objective criteria. Based on 25 semistructured interviews with black professionals, I contend that feeling rules have different implications for black workers and ultimately reinforce racial difference. This research contributes to the sociological literature on emotion work by further developing the racial components of emotional performance.
ISSN:0037-7791
1533-8533
DOI:10.1525/sp.2010.57.2.251