“This Is What We're All About”: The (Re)Construction of an Oppressive Organizational Structure

Abstract

Issues of racial disparity continue to plague America today. Faith-based organizations have the ability to address this concern, yet few communication studies have focused on religion's potential for positive social change. For that reason, this study investigates how the management of dialectal tensions within an intercultural congregation serves to discipline its own members, thus (re)constructing a racially oppressive organizational structure. We begin this process, first, by reviewing the social construction of race, the tension-centered approach, and dialectical theory. Building upon nearly two years of ethnographic field work, we then outline the study's context, procedure, and analyses. Next, we discuss three dialectical tensions that emerged from this study, as well as the way each of these tensions is managed by diverse organizational members: (a) individuality-community, (b) valuation-devaluation, and (c) inclusion-exclusion. We conclude with three practical implications: (a) genuine dialogue, (b) variegated diversity, and (c) nurtured reflexivity.

Notes

The organizational name is a pseudonym, as are all names used in this study.

We recognize the status of Hispanic/Latino as a marker of race and/or ethnicity is highly contested, as are the terms “race” and “ethnicity” in general (see Proudford & Nkomo, 2006). Participants in this study, however, used these terms interchangeably to denote a racial category. Consistent with the interpretive perspective, for this study, we chose to employ the terminologies used by our participants.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

J. Jacob Jenkins

J. Jacob Jenkins, Department of Communication, University of South Florida.

Patrick J. Dillon

Patrick J. Dillon, Department of Communication, University of South Florida.