Text

theses

Ever since Du Bois described the double consciousness, scholars have debated if African-Americans hold a distinct worldview because of experiencing racial stigma. Yet controversies surrounding cultural explanations for racial disparities in education and poverty led sociologists to abandon the question of whether blacks enact unique beliefs and values. This ethnography of a Brooklyn, NY barbershop examines how black men perceive and talk about culture and morality through a racial lens and use folk conceptions of race to guide interaction. Building on conceptualizations of the double consciousness and race as performance as well as research on race and place, I find that the men: (1) sometimes express beliefs and values that they claim are uniquely black, while at other times frame conforming to “mainstream” values as “acting black;” (2) deploy notions of an “authentic” black worldview to judge the actions of whites and blacks; and (3) are pressured to put on racial performances in the barbershop. By showing when and how blacks perceive beliefs, values, and practices in relation—and in opposition—to whites, this study of a “racial backstage” shows how a black worldview is accomplished and moralized in interaction and furthers efforts to bring culture back into racial theorizing.

ETD_6586

Ph.D.

Includes bibliographical references

by Shatima Jenique Jones

doi:10.7282/T3H1341B

ETD doctoral

The author owns the copyright to this work.