A sociologist learns to study religion

Martí, Gerardo

doi:10.1177/2050303216676525

Cited by 1 publication

(3 citation statements)

References 19 publications

(7 reference statements)

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“…Leaders and attendees must ensure that the church feels united, yet, as we will see, practicing unity requires more than the expression of personal niceties. As Martí (2016) notes, to unite under a common religious identity in an interracial church means aligning toward White preferences. Therefore, nonWhites must extort racialized consolation and labor for White congregants’ interactional efforts and “save” interracial interactions from decline.…”

Section: Research Site Methods and Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the corporate world, diversity programming is fueled by an “ideology of profits,” in which diversity is a means to attract consumers and develop loyalty to the company (Raeburn 2004). In multiracial congregations, nonWhite congregants and leaders must “transcend” their racial identities by deploying nonthreatening performances and emphasizing a common religious identity to obtain legitimacy from White congregants (Martí 2005, 2008, 2016). This is why contemporary interracial settings are still considered “White spaces”: because they are sites where the agency of Black and brown people is constrained (Anderson 2015; Ray 2019).…”

Section: Racial Reconciliation and Intergroup Contactmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As such, this study examines how leaders and members attempt (or fail) to successfully ''pull off'' diversity by attending to actors' microlevel practices. The pressure to make racial diversity a reality among interracial organizations, coupled with the racialized dynamics involved in the presentation of self, renders an interracial church a valuable site for empirical and theoretical exploration (Goffman 1956;Martı ´2016).…”

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confidence: 99%

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“Saved” by Interaction, Living by Race: The Diversity Demeanor in an Organizational Space

Ince

2022

Soc Psychol Q

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Sociologists have written surprisingly little about the role of social interactions in facilitating the success of racial diversity initiatives in contemporary organizations. The push for racial inclusion across multiple institutions illustrates that racial diversity is a widespread cultural mythology. However, social interactions are living component of cultural ideals, and successful interracial interactions are necessary to pull off diversity. In this article, I use ethnographic data gathered from parishioners of an interracial religious organization to look beyond “happy talk” and toward the tangible effort that is required to accomplish racial diversity on the ground. Specifically, I advance the concept of the diversity demeanor: racialized interaction rituals that smooth social interactions in interracial settings. Using the contributions of symbolic interactionism to examine race as a social relationship mediated through formal organizations offers a number of advantages. It reveals how the burden of making diversity happen falls on the shoulders of racial minorities who must “save” interactions and develop White actors’ understandings when they “mess up.” By developing the concept of the diversity demeanor, I bring attention to how macrolevel systems of stratification manifest within microlevel practices in the meso space of a religious organization.

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Section: Research Site Methods and Datamentioning

confidence: 99%