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“福利”的访问，这些福利是由“客户”看重的。为了获得这些好处，客户承担义务，这些义务可以通过向看门人支付费用来履行。职业经纪人、汽车推销员、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。当客户的地位较低时，例如非裔美国人，职业介绍所可能会引导他们去找薪水较低、不那么理想的工作，汽车销售员可能会索要并获得更高的价格，房地产经纪人可能只会展示隔离的住房。这项研究将通过实验测试种族地位差异对把关的影响。非裔美国人看门人从白人客户那里获得的费用较少吗？当白人成为看门人时会发生什么？非洲裔美国客户是否为他们寻求的访问支付了更高的费用？客户寻求接触的人的种族有什么影响？这些问题具有重要的现实意义和理论意义。研究结果将帮助我们更好地理解身份差异和分层对日常生活的持续影响。多种族把关是在交换网络的背景下研究的。例如，当A-B交换必须在A可以与C交换之前完成时，B是看门人。B是看门人，因为A扮演客户的角色，在获得访问和与C交换之前，必须获得B的同意才能进行交换。作为研究的一部分，开发了种族差异的数量影响的度量，以及从该度量得出的假设。本研究采用2×2×2(A的种族、B的种族、C的种族)设计来检验假设。在国家科学基金会数字图书馆倡议的资助下，ExNet将被用来建立行为者之间的交流关系。受试者坐在不同的房间里，只使用鼠标控制就可以通过联网的PC进行谈判。ExNet将被调查的网络显示为每个受试者屏幕上的活动显示。受试者点击图标以提出和拒绝要约，并完成交易。更广泛的影响调查结果将促进对歧视性做法的理解，在这些做法中，对少数族裔的权力是以结构和地位为共同基础的。形式社会学理论通过网络交换理论和身份特征理论之间的新桥梁得到扩展，这可能是社会学中经受最广泛考验的形式理论。更广泛地说，Will的结果表明，基于种族的地位差异如何影响人们获得人们重视的商品，这可能有助于揭示歧视持续存在的系统性和结构性方式之一。虽然研究的重点是种族对把关的影响，但潜在的理论过程并不局限于种族地位。它适用于任何“身份特征”(带有文化信仰和/或对价值和能力的评估的个人的可识别属性)变得突出的把关环境。例如，性别、年龄、美貌和性取向都是身份特征，当它们在看门人-客户关系中变得突出时，它们的影响应该与对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.