Recognizing Dignity

Abstract

An enduring finding is that marginalized young men of color aggressively seek "respect," or masculine status. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork at an all-boys public high school, the author found that respect-a desire to "be known"-offers an incomplete explanation for how young black men claim recognition in an era of surveillance. These findings reveal an alternative and more complex portrait of criminalized young black men in search of multiple dignities. With the help of adults, the young men in this study made claims to the right to grow as individuals. They also continued to yearn for a form of respect that rejected a sexually victimized identity, in a manner rarely captured in previous research. Their yearnings also highlight claims to a third form of dignity: to "be unknown," or the privilege of anonymity.

Legally Armed but Presumed Dangerous: An Intersectional Analysis of Gun Carry Licensing as a Racial/Gender Degradation Ceremony

“…Further, perhaps because “race is still seen by many as the primary oppositional force in Black lives” (Crenshaw 1989, 161), the scholarship on punishment reveals how race shapes police stops (Epp, Maynard-Moody, and Haider-Markel 2014), the judiciary process (Van Cleve 2016), and punishment (Harris, Evans, and Beckett 2011; Tonry 2011; Wacquant 2001), but masculinity is often overlooked as an interlocking factor despite obvious gender disparities that accompany racial disparities (Messerschmidt 1993). Indeed, “penal-welfarism” has largely been left out of these analyses as a mechanism to discipline men of color peripheral to the criminal justice system (although see scholarship on racialized discipline in schools; Oeur 2016; Rios 2011).…”

Measuring and Explaining a College Dignity Divide in America

“…Despite coping efforts, some of which involve drawing moral boundaries against more resourced groups, society's hierarchy perpetuates what Lamont calls "recognition gaps" according to social categories such as gender, race, class, or age, for example. Dignity is thought to be interactional and dynamic, reflecting an exertion of agency, poise, resource mobilization, and boundary maintenance in the face of structural or cultural marginalization (Anderson and Snow 2001;Crowley 2013Crowley , 2014Lamont et al 2016;Oeur 2016).…”

“…Thus, perceptions of dignity are separable from structural indignities, because of variation in situationally constructed identities. In fact, existing scholarship places an emphasis on worker agency, protest, and boundary work-amid discrimination, stigma, or disrespect-in managing a sense of dignity in one's own life (e.g., Crowley 2014;Hodson and Roscigno 2004;Lamont 2000;Oeur 2016;Roscigno et al 2021;Sayer 2007).…”