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There's A Place For Us: How Ethnic Identities Are Revealed In Ethnic-Specific Organizations, Crystal Jackson

Dissertations

Ethnic-specific organizations have long been features of American society. Historically, they have provided ethnic actors with

a means of preserving culture and history. They have also been sites where collective interests are pursued. In this dissertation I study two ethnic-specific organizations. Using identity, incorporation and

inequality, as essential dimensions of American ethnicity, I describe how the political and civic work that occurs in two organizations reveals

group boundaries.

My data and analysis support three major findings. First, I find

that the identities that emerge from this kind of organizational work are transactional identities. Transactional identities are identities that are confirmed …