Discovering a hidden privilege: Ethnography in multiracial organizations as an outsider within

Abstract

In this article I use an ‘outsider within’ epistemology to conduct a reflexive analysis of the impact of researcher characteristics on gathering data in multiracial organizations. The reported research elucidates that the intersection of race, gender, class background, age and occupational prestige influenced the ethnographer's social interactions with respondents in the teaching profession. With examples selected principally from two years of ethnographic fieldwork in two predominantly racial/ethnic minority multiracial schools in Southern California, I identify a hidden privilege for Latina professionals. I contend that unlike white or male privilege, which are granted consciously and unconsciously, the hidden privilege is fleeting, and works only when verbally revealed in occupations held in lower prestige.