Class, Race, and Emotions

Abstract

Emotions are central to inequalities, yet scholarship in the areas of race, class and emotion has yet to examine how race and class affect the distribution and experience of emotions, and how emotions themselves might contribute to race and class inequalities. In this chapter, we weave together the existing emotions literature addressing race and class with other scholarship on race and class inequalities to generate some starting points for a more robust sociology of race, class, and emotions. First, we present literature from the scholarship on mental health to examine the impact of class and race disparities on the distribution of emotions. Second, we examine how social and cultural influences associated with class and race shape emotions. Third, we discuss how processes of emotional socialization tie emotions to identities. Fourth, we examine emotions in the workplace. Finally, we end the chapter with an examination of emotional hierarchies and their impact on positionality and interaction.