Date of Award

2016

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Social Sciences

First Advisor

Zabriskie, Queen

Area of Concentration

Sociology

Abstract

This thesis uses the frameworks of “doing difference” (West and Fenstermaker 1995) and “boundary work” (Lamont 2002) to examine how people construct categories of belonging in Second Line communities in New Orleans, Louisiana. While I use the concept of “doing difference” in this thesis to refer to the enactment and accomplishment of existing categories of difference, I use “boundary work” to refer to the performative acts through which individuals constitute categories of difference. Second Line is a public participatory parade local to New Orleans that stems from colonial gatherings in Congo Square. There are two main forms of Second Line parades: jazz funerals and Social Aid and Pleasure Club anniversary parades. The existing literature on Second Line focuses on the transformation of space, representation, and the impact of tourism on parading practices. However, there is little attention in this literature to how belonging and race, especially whiteness, are constructed in and through Second Line practices. This study fills this gap in the existing literature by examining how people construct racial differences and struggle over belonging within Second Line communities. Using data from eight semi-­‐structured interviews with cultural workers in New Orleans and participant observation at parades and related events, I show how existing categories of difference are reproduced and/or challenged through practices within Second Line communities. I argue that through boundary work cultural workers and parade participants construct and accomplish a racialized sense of belonging. Moreover, I show how participants draw on competing definitions of Second Line to craft individual and collective racial identities and spaces of belonging within their communities. I examine whiteness and make sense of discourses about the place of White people in Second Line using two analytical categories: white participation and white infiltration. Finally, I argue that Second Line is an oppositional performance practice through which black communities in New Orleans reclaim space and heal from the injuries of white supremacy.

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