Challenging Racial Silences in Studies of Emotion Work: Contributions from Anti-Racist Feminist Theory

Abstract

Little or no attention has been paid to the racialized dimensions of the emotion work done by individuals as part of their paid jobs. I argue that this exclusion of racial analyses is symptomatic of a static conceptualization of the subject underlying many studies of emotion work. While theorists illuminate the different forms of emotion work required by women and men, and by individuals in various professions, there is little understanding of the relationship between the emotion work people do and their social locations within interactive race, class and gender hierarchies. Drawing on feminist anti-racist theory I propose a multidimensional approach to difference and stratification, which would allow us to illuminate new forms of emotion work done by people living in today's heterogeneous social and economic context. The theoretical discussion in this article is complemented by an analysis of the experiences of an ethnically diverse group of women who are small-business owners in Halifax, Canada.