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THE SOCIAL REPRODUCTION OF SYSTEMIC RACIAL INEQUALITY A Dissertation by JENNIFER CATHERINE MUELLER Submitted to the Office of Graduate Studies of Texas A&M University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Chair of Committee, Joe R. Feagin Committee Members, Sarah Gatson Joseph O. Jewell Albert Broussard Head of Department, Jane Sell August 2013 Major Subject: Sociology Copyright 2013 Jennifer Catherine Mueller ABSTRACT The racial wealth gap is a deeply inexorable indicator of inequality. Today the average family of color holds only six cents of wealth for every dollar owned by whites. What accounts for such stubborn inequality in an era lauded as racially progressive? Intergenerational family links suggest a major linchpin. In this dissertation I work toward a race critical theory of social reproduction, drawing on 156 family histories of intergenerational wealth transfer. These data were categorically coded for instances of wealth and capital acquisition and transfer, as well as qualitatively analyzed for thematic patterns using the extended case method. My analysis targets specific social mechanisms that differentially promote the transmission of wealth and other forms of capital (e.g., social networks, educational credentials) across racial groups over time. I isolate racial patterns in the mobility trajectories of families through an original construct, inheritance pathways – instances involving the transfer and/or interconvertiblity of wealth/capital between two or more generations. Among my sample, inheritance pathways were regularly traceable from ancestors living during legal slavery and segregation. My analysis reveals that the wealth and capital acquired by white families regularly works in interlocking, supportive ways to “pave” pathways of protected, intergenerational mobility over time. In contrast, though families of color evidence many efforts to build upwardly mobile pathways, they are frequently divested of their capital through both explicitly and subtly racist means. Moreover, the value of their capital is often diminished, making it less useful in launching and sustaining ii mobility pathways. My analysis hones in on the recursive relationship between micro- level family actions and the racial state, which is regularly implicated in these processes. I draw on these data to additionally expand the concept racial capital – a type of “currency” that intersects with other forms of capital for individuals, families and groups. Collectively, the inheritance pathways of families suggest that whiteness often intervenes to (1) “unlock” forms of capital for some individuals/families/groups; and, (2) enhance the value of other forms of capital. Ultimately I argue that inheritance pathways and racial capital serve as primary means for reproducing conditions and meanings that sustain systemic racism over time. iii DEDICATION For my parents, Harry Arthur Mueller and Milburga Henrickson Mueller. Though you are gone too soon, you are never far from my thoughts. I do not think that you (or I for that matter) would have predicted or imagined the path my life has taken. At times I contemplate what you would think of the journey my life has taken these past years, of this dissertation and the scholarship I will produce, and more broadly, of the woman I have become. Pride is an emotion tied to the earth and granted to the living. Nonetheless, I can only say that I hope you are proud of me. I have tried to live a life that honors your memory and the work and sacrifices you each made to build and support our family and each other; and one which puts into practice the core principles on which you based your lives – faith, integrity and love – in the many, unfolding ways that I come to understand the depth and meaning of these fundamental values in my own life. I pray I have succeeded. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS It is often customary that acknowledgements build-up to the personal – to the people involved in the most intimate networks of our lives. I am choosing to work a bit in reverse, to open with a declaration I first heard from my closest friend and fellow scholar/activist, Glenn Bracey: “We all go together.” Indeed, this is a logic often explicitly acknowledged and communicated within communities of color. I have long embraced the politics of this philosophy, but the depth of my understanding has certainly been crystallized in the process of writing this dissertation. The companion testimony to this logic – and one certainly born out through my own research produced here – is that none of us arrive at this point alone, and I am certainly no exception. It is my immense fortune in life to have been embraced within many diverse communities, and to have crossed-paths with many individuals who have helped shape my scholarship, and this research in particular. Collectively these experiences have developed my own unfolding consciousness, leading me to better understand the world we share, and indeed my own life. I have also been supported by many of these same people and more through these last years, during a research and writing process that has been immensely rewarding but also challenging. Among my closest group of friends and colleagues, I want to acknowledge especially Glenn Bracey, along with Kristen Lavelle, Christopher Chambers, Wendy Leo Moore, Terah Venzant Chambers, Lorena Murga, Jennifer Guillén, Ruth Thompson- Miller, Nichelle Carpenter, Joyce Bell and Rosalind Chou. I am also deeply indebted to v my chair, Joe Feagin, and committee members, Sarah Gatson, Joseph Jewell and Albert Broussard. You have not only guided me through this specific research and offered me countless theoretical and analytic considerations, insights from which this work has unquestionably benefitted; you are all also wonderful mentors and role models. To Joe, specifically, I offer sincere gratitude for helping shape who I would become as a scholar/activist and for being so giving of your time, knowledge, resources and unfailing support. Joe often jokes that when I first met him during my campus visit to the University of Florida (our previous institution) I appeared to be interviewing him about whether I should join their sociology department. My own testimony is that within a few minutes of meeting with “Professor Feagin” I knew that I had to work with him, and that doing so would change my life. I knew what kind of scholar I wanted to become, and turned down acceptances to several highly ranked programs to work with Joe. I have been reassured of my choice countless times over the near decade of our collegial relationship. I am grateful, as well, to the wonderful community of people in the Sociology Department at Texas A&M University, who have helped make for a tremendous graduate school experience. I want to especially thank our current department head, Jane Sell, for providing personal and departmental support through a number of hardships I experienced during my graduate tenure. There is no question you kept me from dire straits on more than one occasion, and helped ensure I would reach this culminating moment. I also cannot thank Christi Ramirez, Mary Pendleton and the broader Sociology Department staff enough for their assistance during my time at A&M. vi I am grateful also to Texas A&M’s Department of Sociology, Race and Ethnic Studies Institute, and College of Liberal Arts, for each awarding funds that enhanced my ability to complete this research. I am also quite indebted to my research assistant, Kristi Wolkenstein, who worked with me patiently to refine coding rules and diligently completed many hours of categorical data analysis. Thanks go, as well, to Tony Love for his assistance in assessing inter-rater coding reliability estimates for the categorical data analysis. With deep humility I thank the students who agreed to share their family research project with me for this research. Although the work here is presented as my own, there is no question that the immense wealth of data collected for this project would have been prohibitive were it not for my students’ efforts. I would be additionally remiss not to acknowledge that sometimes their analyses outshone alternates I might have developed, and I have made an effort to note when I have derived knowledge from my students’ exemplary insights. Though confidentiality prohibits me from acknowledging them publicly, in full disclosure and in a true belief in critical pedagogy I want to recognize my students as absolute partners in the work produced here. Much transpired in my life during the course of researching and writing this dissertation. This included the terminal cancer diagnosis and passing of my mother and my own diagnosis with cancer a year later. Throughout these terribly difficult trials I was deeply supported in so many ways by the people named above, but also by members of my biological family, particularly my siblings, Sharon Clarke, Steve Mueller, Paul Mueller and Mark Mueller. I say to you all, and especially my sister Sharon, that I would vii not have made it through these trials without you. Thank you for your unwavering love and often very literal support through these most challenging times of my life. I must testify that I believe the dissertation I have ended up producing here is infinitely better and more seasoned than the one with which I started, resulting not just from my growth as a scholar but also because of a personally transformative journey these trials sparked. Along the way I experienced what I can only describe as an epiphany: recognizing that my scholarly and personal self are not discrete pieces of who I am, but converge into a whole that is greater than the sum of these individual parts. In short, I believe my trials and the growth they inspired have ultimately made me a better scholar. I believe, too, that the critical thought inspired during my research process, unquestionably shaped by the above-named benefits I have received through my relationships with colleagues, family, friends and my community, developed my consciousness in a way I have found deeply enriching on a personal level.

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