Abstract
New research from the journals.
Racial “Elevator Speeches”
Although pre-existing literature has examined and categorized microaggressions experienced by multiracial individuals, little research had been done about the ways in which said individuals respond until Monica Heilman’s 2022 paper, “The Racial Elevator Speech: How Multiracial Individual Respond to Racial Identity Inquiries,” in The Sociology of Race and Ethnicity. Through comprehensive interviews with 30 multiracial young adults, Heilman found that her subjects were likely to use “consistent scripts” when faced with racial identity inquiries, often expressing their racial identity in a way that fit societal norms more closely than their own perception of self.
These scripts, dubbed “racial elevator speeches,” are intentionally crafted responses to microaggressions made generally by strangers who inquire about a multiracial individual’s background. These types of microaggressions inflict damage because they “exotify and objectify.” Because individuals feel they must present themselves in a manner that accommodates the colonial gaze, their elevator speeches often contradict their identity as they would define it for friends, family, or themselves. Racial elevator speeches allow individuals to save time and energy, satisfy expectations, and avoid racial tension while navigating these microaggressions.
Still, four of the author’s 30 participants gave responses that defied colonial expectations, either by using non-mainstream terms, longer answers, or dodging the question. Heilman states that although these respondents knew that a racial elevator speech was expected of them, they chose to respond differently to express their personal identity or “play on” the microaggression. Another four participants did not give racial elevator speeches, either because they were white-passing and therefore racial inquiries were not asked of them, because they were not American and approached these questions differently, or, in one case, because they asked inquirers to guess their race.
Racial elevator speeches are intentionally crafted responses to microaggressions made generally by strangers who inquire about a multiracial individual’s background.
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Artistic Freedom?
In a recent American Sociological Review article, “What’s Next? Artists’ Music after Grammy Awards,” Giacomo Negro, Balazs Kovacs, and Glenn R. Carroll address whether Grammy awards have an affect on music produced both by artists who won and those that didn’t. Building upon sociological theory established by Bourdieu, the author’s see artistic differentiation as important because it is a key to cultural recognition, which in turn gives artists capital in society. The author’s tested the following three hypotheses: 1) “Artists differentiate their cultural products more after winning a major award,” 2) “Post-award artistic differentiation of cultural products is lower for winning artists with greater prior commercial success,” and 3) "Post-award artistic differentiation of cultural products is lower for winning artists making these products with large-scale organizations." To tackle these hypotheses, they used neural learning, a coding technology that attempts to reproduce connection processes found in animal brains.
After winning a Grammy award, artists tend to make albums that differentiate themselves from the mainstream.
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Based on numerous models produced by this technology, the authors’ findings were consistent with the first hypothesis; albums released after winning Grammys tended to differentiate themselves from the rest of the pool. The authors argue that this is because the social and economic benefits experienced by Grammy winners offer them increased artistic freedom. However, to their surprise, they found that just receiving a nomination yielded less differentiation. Therefore, although winners do bring more differentiation to the market, because they are outnumbered by nominees, one could argue that awards ultimately do more to homogenize the music industry. The findings also support the second and third hypotheses, perhaps because the greater tension between economic and artistic interests these variables add.