Abstract
This article examines how African American men, through face-to-face conversation, create individual and collective memories around issues of race. I use ethnographic data collected in an African American neighborhood tavern in Chicago to argue that tavern patrons' race talk: 1) generates a collective memory of negative interracial interaction that gives reported racial encounters a compounding effect; and 2) empowers patrons through catharsis and gives them an opportunity to re-create themselves with a positive racial self-identity. Consequences of this microlevel collective memory for interracial interaction are discussed.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
REFERENCES
Abrahams, R. (1970). Deep down in the jungle.Chicago: Aldine Publishing.
Anderson, E. (1978). A place on the corner.Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Bell, M. (1983). The world from Brown's Lounge.Chicago: University of Illinois Press.
Berger, P., & Luckman, T. (1966). The social construction of reality.New York: Doubleday.
Cooley, C. H. (1961). The social self.In T. Parsons, et al. (Eds.), Theories of society.New York: The Free Press.
Ducharme, L., & Fine, G. (1995). The construction of demonization and nonpersonhood: Constructing the "Traitorous reputation of Benedict Arnold." Social Forces, 73, 1309–1331.
Feagin, J., & Sikes, M. P. (1994). Living with racism: The black middle class experience.Boston: Beacon Press.
Fivush, R. (1994). Constructing narrative, emotion, and self in parent-child conversations about the past.In U. Neisser & R. Fivush (Eds.), The remembering self (pp. 136–157). Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.
Glaser, B., & Strauss, A. (1967). The discovery of grounded theory: Strategies for qualitative research.New York: Aldine.
Halbwachs, M. (1980). The collective memory.Translated from the French by F. J. Ditter & V. Y. Ditter. New York: Harper Colphone Books.
Halbwachs, M. (1992). The collective memory of the family.In On collective memory, translated by L. Coser (pp. 54–83). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Hannerz, U. (1969). Soul side.New York: Columbia University Press.
Huberman, M., & Miles, M. (1994). Data management and analysis methods.In N. K. Denzin & Y. Lincoln (Eds.), Handbook of qualitative research (pp. 428–444). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Irwin-Zarecka, I. (1994).Frames of remembrance: The dynamics of collective memory.NewBrunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers.
Koonz, C. (1994). Between memory and oblivion: Concentration camps in German memory.In J. R. Gillis (Ed.), Commemorations: The politics of national identity (pp. 258–280). Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Massey, D., & Denton, N. (1993). American apartheid: Segregation and the making of the underclass.Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
May, R. A. B. (1999). Tavern culture and television viewing: The influence of local viewing culture on patrons' reception of television programs.Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 28, 69–99.
Mead, G. H. (1962). Mind, self, and society.C. Morris (Ed.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Oldenburg, R. (1997). The great good place.New York: Marlowe and Company.
Olick, J., & Levy, D. (1997). Collective memory and cultural constraint: Holocaust myth and rationality in German politics.American Sociological Review, 62, 921–936.
Schuman, H., & Scott, J. (1987). Generations and collective memories.American Sociological Review, 54, 359–381.
Schuman, H., Scott, J., Steeh, C., & Bobo, L. (1988). Racial attitudes in America: Trends and interpretations.Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Schwartz, B. (1991). Social change and collective memory: The democratization of GeorgeWashington.American Sociological Review, 56, 221–236.
Schwartz, B. (1996). Memory as a cultural system: Abraham Lincoln in World War II. American Sociological Review, 61, 908–927.
Schwartz, B. (1997). Collective memory and history: How Abraham Lincoln became a symbol of racial equality.Sociological Quarterly, 38, 469–496.
Vinitzky-Seroussi, V. (1998). After pomp and circumstance: High school reunion as an autobiographical occasion.Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Zerubavel, E. (1996). Social memories: Steps to a sociology of the past.Qualitative Sociology, 19, 283–299.
Zerubavel, Y. (1995). Recovered roots.Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
May, R.A.B. Race Talk and Local Collective Memory among African American Men in a Neighborhood Tavern. Qualitative Sociology 23, 201–214 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1005482816598
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1005482816598