Rediscovering the Color Line within Work Organizations

Abstract

Although American sociology has long been concerned with racial and ethnic inequality within work organizations, this traditional strength has languished in recent years. Few ethnographic studies have managed to capture what E. C. Hughes once called “the knitting of racial groups” at work. This article critically reviews the literature on race and work organizations and offers a set of propositions that target neglected aspects of racial boundaries at work. These center on the spatial dimension of race and organizations, the relevance of racial boundaries for the acquisition of skill and expertise, the bearing of status hierarchies on the reproduction of racial boundaries, and the character of corporate and judicial responses to racial inequalities at work. This article offers a tentative strategy for research in the field that might reclaim the lost tradition of E. C. Hughes.