(IN)VISIBILITY BLUES: THE PARADOX OF INSTITUTIONAL RACISM

In this article, we demonstrate how the taken-for-granted, inner-workings of culture can become implicated in the (in)visibility of minority members. We seek to illuminate ways in which institutions may unwittingly facilitate (in)visibility through their organizational habitus. We begin by providing...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Sociological spectrum 2009-01, Vol.29 (1), p.28-50
Main Authors: McDonald, Katrina Bell, Harvey Wingfield, Adia M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Cultural change
Cultural studies
Culture
Elites
Habitus
Institutions
Minorities
Minority Groups
Organizational culture
Physical environment
Racism
Schools
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Summary:In this article, we demonstrate how the taken-for-granted, inner-workings of culture can become implicated in the (in)visibility of minority members. We seek to illuminate ways in which institutions may unwittingly facilitate (in)visibility through their organizational habitus. We begin by providing further evidence of invisibility and visibility as real and commonly experienced psychosocial phenomena among minorities within predominantly white, institutional settings. In particular, we argue that a minority's inconspicuousness can be simultaneously fused together with one's conspicuousness to form what we call racial/ethnic (in)visibility. This study employs focus-group data collected from a sample of administrators and faculty from elite K-12 independent (private) schools, an institution that admittedly has been slow to make cultural change in its racial/ethnic ideologies and practices.
ISSN:0273-2173
1521-0707
DOI:10.1080/02732170802480501