House Negro or Field Negro?: Racial Salience and Claims-Making in the United Methodist Church

Abstract

Relational inequalities theory relies on categorical differences in status to explain why the claims of people of color may be discouraged or denied. However, this mechanism may be insufficient to explain intraracial inequalities in claims-making. In this study, we draw from 17 semistructured interviews with pastors of color in the United Methodist Church to examine how racial salience affects the success of claims to leadership positions, congregational acceptance, and ordination in an antiracist organization. We find that status differences created by racial categories do not always reduce the success of these pastors’ claims. However, when pastors of color express high levels of racial salience, their claims to organizational resources are delegitimated and their presence in the denomination often becomes untenable. This study contributes to understandings of how race interacts with the claims-making process to generate inequalities, intraracial discrimination within organizations, and the limits of formal policies of antiracism.