“Blacks on the Bubble”

“Blacks on the Bubble” refers to Sharon M. Collins's article in Sociological Quarterly that deals with the vulnerability of black executives in white corporations.

Employment discrimination is dead, or so it would seem. Black Americans occupy highly visible leadership positions in political and business arenas that only 50 years ago were the exclusive province of white men. In the corporate world, multinational corporations on Fortune magazine's list of 500 companies, such as American Express, Time Warner, and Merrill Lynch, have appointed black men and women to top executive positions. Black executives run billion-dollar corporations, and that, along with the election of an African American U.S. president, makes the idea of anti-black racism seem almost absurd.

Yet, social science researchers continue to debate whether or not racial barriers against blacks in high-paying and powerful occupations are really a thing of the past. One view is that the access to prestigious occupations symbolized by black corporate executives lays to rest the problem of race and job discrimination in contemporary America. However, the presence of African Americans in managerial jobs, even those at or near the pinnacle of corporate power, does not unequivocally signal racial parity and progress. This is because looking closely at black executive careers since the 1960s civil rights movement reveals a skewed pattern in the structure of job opportunities. Blacks disproportionately are tracked into racialized roles and organizations. This means that black professionals and managers are employed in institutions and institutional niches that are responsible for managing black labor or delivering services and products to black people. They are tracked away from decision-making and distributive positions affecting totally or predominantly white constituencies. Therefore, blacks remain functionally segregated in the labor market.

Interviews with the first members of the post-civil rights black managerial elite in Chicago businesses reveal how affirmative action and equal opportunity programs provided—but also truncated—the avenues through which blacks could succeed. Despite their weighty titles, such as vice presidents of affirmative action and community [Page 24]relations, these executives filled a newly created racialized structure of jobs developed in organizations during the civil rights era to address pressure from black urban communities and federal government policies. Race-conscious policies were funneled through them, as they buffered companies from disruptive boycotts and demonstrations organized by black consumers and constituencies. Racialized jobs include implementing federal legislation and antibias corporate personnel policies. Roles associated with racialized jobs also include appeasing turbulent black communities by channeling economic investments into inner cities and interpreting black special interests to corporate decision makers. The vanguards of black corporate executives were useful actors in a highly politicized context, and their occupational status symbolized dramatic social change. Simultaneously, racialized roles were a primary gateway for their initial movement into managerial jobs and largely defined and constrained black corporate careers.

Concentrated in dead-end corporate jobs in staff areas such as personnel, urban affairs, and public relations, black executives had no business portfolio. They were marginalized in white corporate cultures, both because of their racial group consciousness and because the black advocacy role that they played that was inherent in racialized positions. Social advocacy is secondary to the expansion of profits; maximizing profit is the central purpose of corporate operations.

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