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Walking the Intra-Racial Tightrope: Balancing Exclusion and Inclusion within a Black Social Club

ABSTRACT Exclusion and inclusion constitute the formation of social groups and their boundaries. Historically, middle- and upper-class African Americans formed social organizations to engage in racial uplift and status enhancement. Recent work suggests the purposes of such organizations have shifted from status enhancement toward preserving intra-racial ties. Drawing on nearly four years of participant observation and 29 in-depth interviews with members of a middle-class Black men’s social club, this article analyzes the tensions imbued in maintaining solidarity amid class-based divisions. Beyond providing social respite from the white gaze, this Black space offers escape from the Black gaze, or the burdens of racial uplift. Studying Black social clubs and symbolic boundary formation is richly informative for understanding boundary maintenance and group solidarity within racialized organizations.