Publications

2022. “A Theory of Racialized Cultural Capital.” Sociological Inquiry 92(2):317-340.

Abstract: Bourdieu developed cultural capital theory to explain the upper class’ exclusive cultivation of skills, knowledge, and dispositions (i.e., cultural capital) that yield institutional advantages. Fundamental to this conceptualization is the idea that cultural capital itself is classed—not racialized—and that what constitutes cultural capital is broadly the same for every individual irrespective of one’s racial position. I draw from the sociology of race to develop a reconceptualization of cultural capital as fundamentally racialized. Using the illustrative case of “Pursuit”—a white-led organization created in the 1960s to select nonwhite children for integrating white schools—I then theorize about the racial dimensions of cultural capital. I find evidence that Pursuit selected for nonwhite students deemed nonthreatening to the dominant racial group. Thus, I maintain that qualities associated with appearing nonthreatening function as cultural capital for nonwhite students in this field. Accordingly, I theorize that (1) what constitutes cultural capital may vary by the racial position of the holder of cultural capital and (2) those who are dominant in the racial hierarchy contribute to determining what constitutes cultural capital for those they dominate according to their own interests. As it is taken for granted that cultural capital is fundamentally classed, it should be equally understood and applied that cultural capital is fundamentally racialized.

Forthcoming (2022). “Black Cultural Capital.” The Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Social Justice in Education.

Abstract: As Bourdieu did not substantively consider race in his conceptualization of cultural capital, those who used and developed the concept since the 1970s have largely under-theorized race and promoted deficit thinking about nonwhite people. Responding to this body of literature, Prudence Carter developed (nondominant) Black cultural capital, which recognizes the cultural practices, values, and resources of Black lower-class people. After Carter coined “Black cultural capital,” those who further developed the idea did not explore the nondominant cultural capital of lower-class people but instead—in alignment with Bourdieu—conceptualized cultural capital as a resource exclusively accessible to those with class advantage. In conceptualizing (dominant) Black cultural capital as cultural capital appropriated by the Black middle and upper classes, scholars define it in three ways: 1) Black middle- and upper-class appropriation of white, middle- and upper-class culture, 2) Black middle- and upper-class consumption and promotion of Black middle- and upper-class culture, and 3) cultural resources that Black middle- and upper-class people use to resist racial discrimination. The appropriation of dominant Black cultural capital is a practice in which Black people with resources use their economic and cultural advantage (from the perspective of white institutions) to improve their institutional success, life chances, and material quality of life. However, the practice is costly: it derives its advantage from the exclusion and subjugation of Black lower-class people, comes at a psychological and spiritual cost to Black middle- and upper-class people, and upholds the racial hierarchy as it only allows for the most non-threatening forms of resistance.

Works in Progress

“The Black One Percent: Money Values, Wealth, and Racial Position.”

Based on 25 interviews with Black Americans in the economic top one percent of Black Americans (net worths between $1 million and $100 million), this paper explores high-net-worth, Black Americans’ values about money (what money means to them) and how their money values influence financial decisions and outcomes.

“Racial Exclusion and Racist Inclusion in U.S. Public Education, 1966-1970.”   

The A Better Chance organization (ABC)—a white-led, government-sponsored entity—was founded in the 1960s to facilitate the racial integration of public schools in the Northeast region of the United States. This comparative-historical paper examines how white educational leaders and white residents of segregated Northeastern towns exercised control over the process of racial integration. Specifically, through the ABC organization, residents of all-white, Northeastern towns were given the power to vote for or against school integration in their local elections. Some towns voted for integration (e.g., Andover, MA) while others voted against integration (e.g., Newport, NH). Using archival materials and local newspaper articles from 1966-1970, I examine the factors that influenced the decisions of different towns. I demonstrate how this process illuminates two kinds of racism perpetuated through the US public education system: racial exclusion and racist inclusion. I theorize about the notion racist inclusion as a form of racial exploitation.

“Passive voice and the reproduction of racial hierarchy.” (Co-authored with Katharina Hecht)

This paper explores how racism manifests in academic language. Drawing on the insights of theorists including June Jordan, Tukufu Zuberi, and Noël Cazenave, we focus on the role of the passive voice in naturalizing and maintaining the racial hierarchy.

“W.E.B. Du Bois, Sol Plaatje, and the Collaborative Development of Scientific-Literary Sociology.”

This paper traces the personal relationship between and parallel careers of W.E.B. Du Bois in the US and Sol Plaatje in South Africa. I examine the literary tools that Du Bois and Plaatje use to disprove scientific racism in their work. I particularly focus on their uses of (1) the black jeremiad form and (2) images of morally superior yet unidimensional black women. I consider their work as part of the development of scientific-literary sociology.