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African American Men and the Experience of Employment Discrimination

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Abstract

The economic marginalization of African American men has been studied in a variety of contexts, from trade union exclusion, to joblessness, to disparate wages and mobility. Discrimination is often inferred as an influential mechanism, yet seldom directly examined in its own right. Drawing on a unique sample of verified workplace discrimination cases, this article analyzes forms and processes of discrimination that African American men face in employment. Our results denote the prevalence of discriminatory firing, with on-going racial harassment and discriminatory promotional and hiring practices also quite evident. In-depth immersion into case materials highlights the centrality of racial stereotyping and significant discretion on the part of gatekeepers within organizational environments-discretion in the use of “soft skills” criteria to exclude and debilitate mobility, and in selective (or even targeted) use of seemingly neutral organizational policies and sanctions. Moreover, harassment on the job—something that conventional workplace inequality research has overlooked—is quite problematic and well-represented in these data. We conclude by discussing the implications of our results for the conceptualization of inequality reproduction and that pertaining to race, status, and the workplace in particular.

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Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge the support of the Department of Sociology, Ohio State University, and that of members of the Ohio Discrimination Project. We also thank Randy Hodson, Steve Lopez, George Wilson, the Editor of Qualitative Sociology, Javier Auyero, and three anonymous reviewers for constructive insights and suggestions on an earlier draft.

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  1. Department of Sociology, 238 Townshend Hall, 1885 Neil Ave. Mall, Columbus, OH, 43210, USA

    Sherry N. Mong & Vincent J. Roscigno

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  1. Sherry N. Mong
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Correspondence to Sherry N. Mong.

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Mong, S.N., Roscigno, V.J. African American Men and the Experience of Employment Discrimination. Qual Sociol 33, 1–21 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11133-009-9142-4

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