Inequality and Multiracial Gatekeeping

本研究探讨了种族地位对看门人-客户关系的影响。看门人控制着对他们不拥有的“利益”的访问，这些利益是“客户”所看重的。“为了获得这些福利，客户承担了义务，这些义务可以通过向看门人支付费用来履行。职业介绍所、汽车销售员、真实的房地产经纪人是看门人，因为他们分别控制着工作、汽车和住房的准入以及每一项的信息。当客户地位较低时，例如非裔美国人，职业介绍所可能会引导他们去做工资较低、不太理想的工作，汽车销售员可能会要求并接受更高的价格，而真实的房地产经纪人可能只展示隔离住房。这项研究将通过实验测试种族地位差异对守门的影响。非裔美国人看门人从白色客户那里获得的费用更少吗？当白人是看门人时会发生什么？非裔美国人客户是否为他们寻求的访问支付更高的费用？ 客户寻求接触的人的种族有什么影响？这些问题在实践和理论上都很重要。研究结果将帮助我们更好地理解地位差异和分层对日常生活的持续影响。在交换网络的背景下研究多种族守门。例如，当A - B交换必须在A可以与C交换之前完成时，B是网守。 B是看门人，因为A扮演客户的角色，必须在获得C的访问和交换之前获得B的同意。 作为研究的一部分，制定了种族差异的定量影响的措施，沿着从该措施得出的假设。本研究采用2 × 2 × 2（A族、B族、C族）设计来检验假设。ExNet由国家科学基金会数字图书馆倡议资助，将用于在参与者之间建立交流关系。 受试者坐在单独的房间里，只使用鼠标控制，通过连接的PC进行谈判。 ExNet在每个受试者的屏幕上显示正在研究的网络。 受试者点击图标进行和拒绝要约，并完成交换。更广泛的影响调查结果将促进对歧视性做法的理解，在这种做法中，对少数民族的权力是以结构和地位为基础的。 正式社会学理论通过网络交换理论和地位特征理论之间的新桥梁得到扩展;也许是社会学中最广泛测试的正式理论。更一般地说，调查结果将显示基于种族的地位差异如何影响人们获得他们珍视的商品，从而可能揭示歧视持续存在的系统性、结构性方式之一。 虽然研究的重点是种族对守门的影响，但潜在的理论过程并不限于种族地位。它适用于任何“身份特征”（个人的可识别属性，带有文化信仰和/或价值和能力的评估）变得突出的守门环境。 例如，性别、年龄、美貌和性取向都是地位特征，当它们在看门人-客户关系中变得突出时，它们的影响应该与种族地位的预测相同。

This research studies the impact of racial status on gatekeeper-client relations. Gatekeepers control access to "benefits" they do not own, benefits that are valued by "clients." Seeking access to those benefits, clients assume obligations which may be discharged by a fee paid to the gatekeeper. Employment agents, car salesmen, real estate agents are gatekeepers because they control access to jobs, cars and housing respectively as well as information about each. When clients are lower status, for example African American, employment agents may steer them to lower paid, less desirable jobs, car salesmen may ask for and receive higher prices, and real estate agents may show only segregated housing. This research will experimentally test the impact of racial status differences on gatekeeping. Do African American gatekeepers gain smaller fees from White clients? What happens when Whites are gatekeepers? Do African American clients pay higher fees for the access they seek? And what is the impact of the race of the person to whom clients seek access? These questions are important for both practical and theoretical reasons. The research findings will help us better understand the continuing effects of status differences and stratification on everyday life. Multiracial gatekeeping is studied in the context of exchange networks. For example, B is the gatekeeper when an A - B exchange must be completed before A may exchange with C. B is the gatekeeper because A, acting in the role of client, must gain B's consent to exchange before gaining access to and exchanging with C. As a part of the research, a measure of the quantitative impact of race differences is developed, along with hypotheses drawn from that measure. The research uses a 2 x 2 x 2 (race of A, race of B, race of C) design to test hypotheses. Funded by the Digital Library Initiative at the National Science Foundation, ExNet will be used to produce exchange relations among actors. Subjects seated in separate rooms negotiate through connected PCs using only mouse control. ExNet shows the network being investigated as an active display on each subject's screen. Subjects click icons to make and reject offers and to complete exchanges. Broader ImpactsFindings will advance understandings of discriminatory practices in which power over racial minorities is grounded jointly in structure and status. Formal sociological theory is extended through new bridges between Network Exchange Theory and Status Characteristics Theory; perhaps the most extensively tested formal theories in sociology. More generally, results of will show how racially grounded status differences affect access to commodities that people value, potentially shedding light on one of the systemic, structural ways in which discrimination persists. While the research focuses on the impact of race on gatekeeping, the underlying theoretical process is not limited to racial status. It applies to any gatekeeping setting where "status characteristic" (identifiable attribute of individuals that carries with it cultural beliefs and/or evaluations of worthiness and competence) becomes salient. Gender, age, beauty and sexual orientation, for example, are all status characteristics, and when they become salient in a gatekeeper-client relationship, their effects should be the same as those predicted for racial status.