Race‐Making an Idioculture: The Case of a Black Social Club

Abstract

Racialization takes shape at the local level, where small groups form cultures reflecting larger society yet distinctly their own. But what do local racialization processes look like? That is, how does small group culture reciprocally interact with racial ideologies? In what ways do small groups experience and conceive of race at the local level, and how does this shape interpersonal behavior and belonging? Through an in‐depth case study of a Black men’s social club, I analyze the ways race is interpreted at the small group level and how the ideology of race (Fields, New Left Rev, 181, 1990, 95) and the idioculture of a group emerge and interact through group processes. Using a sociology of the local approach, the analysis bridges the cultural and racial by demonstrating how small groups create and negotiate culture through recurring interactions. I encourage greater dialogue between the sociology of small group culture and race, arguing that the former makes clear the building blocks and reciprocal tensions of constructing and experiencing racial ideology.