Racialized Emotional Labor: An Unseen Burden in the Public Sector

• Author: Nicole M. Humphrey
• DOI: 10.1177/00953997211037583
• Date: 01 April 2022
• Published date: 01 April 2022
• Subject Matter: Perspectives

https://doi.org/10.1177/00953997211037583

Administration & Society

2022, Vol. 54(4) 741 –758

© The Author(s) 2021

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DOI: 10.1177/00953997211037583

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Perspectives

Racialized Emotional

Labor: An Unseen

Burden in the Public

Sector

Nicole M. Humphrey1

Abstract

Discussions of race have often been on the periphery emotional labor

scholarship. This piece considers the link between race and emotional labor,

arguing that racial bias in public organizations creates disparities in emotional

labor among employees. To make this argument, this piece explores white

normativity in public administration and the implications this has for people

of color when managing their emotions at work. Following this discussion,

the article identifies key themes from the literature, before providing a

framework for future research on emotional labor and race.

Keywords

emotional labor, race, public service

Introduction

With the events of 2020 and calls for action to address racial disparities in the

United States, discussions of race have come to the forefront of public admin-

istration scholarship and practice. Although some scholars have questioned

how race underlies common ideals and procedures within the field of public

1University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL, USA

Corresponding Author:

Nicole M. Humphrey, Department of Political Science, University of Miami, 1300 Campo Sano

Ave, Coral Gables, FL 33146, USA.

Email: nhumphrey@miami.edu

1037583AAS0010.1177/00953997211037583Administration & SocietyHumphrey

research-article2021

742 Administration & Society 54(4)

administration (see Alexander & Stivers, 2010, 2020; Portillo et al., 2020),

race often remains a topic on the margins of our scholarship, practice, and

teaching (Gooden, 2014; Starke et al., 2018). This article aims to bring race

in from the margins and incorporate discussions of racial bias into an area of

public administration where it is notably absent, emotional labor research.

In organizational scholarship, emotional labor represents “the effort,

planning, and control needed to express organizationally desired emotion

during interpersonal transactions” (Morris & Feldman, 1996, p. 987).

Through formal and informal means, employees learn how to control and

display their emotions in a manner that aligns with the expectations of their

job. Scholars have connected emotion labor to questions of employee well-

being (Hsieh, 2014; Hsieh et al., 2012; Jin & Guy, 2009), performance

(Meier et al., 2006), and social identity (Guy & Azhar, 2018; Guy &

Newman, 2004). Research on identity often emphasizes the disparate emo-

tional labor requirements between men and women (Guy & Newman, 2004;

Hochschild, 1983). While gender is often the focus, emotional labor research

can also serve as a means to study racial disparities at work. In the same way

that scholars have suggested emotional labor is gendered (Hochschild, 1983;

Meier et al., 2006; Guy & Newman, 2008), we should also anticipate that

emotional labor is racialized (Wingfield, 2010). Although some have taken

up this area of research (Evans, 2013; Wingfield, 2010), theoretical and

empirical scholarship exploring the intersection between race and emotional

labor remains in its early stages.

Race is a socially constructed concept that guides how individuals interact

with their environment (Carroll et al., 2019). Specifically, race acts as a

means of categorizing individuals that shapes behavior and creates power

relations (Starke et al., 2018). Individuals and the institutions they create hold

perceptions of race that create racialized experiences for every other person

in a society (House-Niamke & Eckerd, 2021). The United States has a long

history of racial bias with lasting impacts on the public sector (Alexander &

Stivers, 2020). However, race often goes undiscussed in scholarship and

practice because it represents a “nervous area” in the field of public adminis-

tration (Gooden, 2014). With implications for the everyday interactions of

public servants, it is essential that we, as a field, consider how race influences

the emotion work of public-sector employees.

Similar to how emotional labor is gendered, it is also raced, and racialized

emotional labor is an unseen burden among public-sector employees.

Although all public employees can experience racialized emotional labor,

this analysis specifically focuses on people of color. The discussion begins

with an analysis of white normativity in public administration and then

explores how racial bias stemming from white normativity creates unique