Coping with Marketplace Discrimination: An Exploration of the Experiences of Black Men."

Academy of Marketing Science Review, 2003 by Grier, Sonya A, Williams, Jacqueline A

In Faces at the Bottom of the Well (1992), author Derrick Bell describes the passage of the fictitious "Racial Realism Act". This act of Congress extends personal association rights typically accorded to individuals, to private businesses. In effect, the new law gives businesses and other private organizations the right to practice racial discrimination, provided that they purchase a license for such activity from the government. The imagery conjured up by Bell is a provocative one from a consumer behavior perspective, particularly in light of recurring publicized incidents of marketplace discrimination. For example, the current controversy surrounding gender exclusive membership at Augusta National, given its status as host of Professional Golfer's Association (PGA) events, highlights the persistence of perceived discrimination in businesses and other private associations. For racial and ethnic minorities, the need to cope with potentially discriminatory interactions is seen as an almost inevitable aspect of "everyday" commercial transactions in the United States (e.g. Feagin and Sikes 1994, Oliver and Shapiro 1995). This contention runs counter to the neo-classical assumption that competition between sellers should lessen, if not altogether eliminate incentives to discriminate, rendering all buyers equal in the eyes of the market. That is, only one's relative store of human and financial capital should determine success in acquiring goods and services (see Becker 1957). Yet, survey evidence, field experiments, journalistic narratives, and judicial opinions in cases about racial discrimination in the marketplace provide ample evidence of actual discrimination faced by racial/ethnic minorities and other groups in the procurement of goods and services. For instance in a poll conducted by Harvard University and the Kaiser Foundation, substantial majorities of Blacks, Latinos and Asians report they at least occasionally experience poor service in stores or restaurants that they attribute to race or ethnicity (Morin and Cottman 2001).

Differential treatment in the marketplace based on group membership rather than individual differences, which we refer to as marketplace discrimination, has been noted to occur across a multitude of consumption contexts, ranging from purchasing automobiles and real estate to browsing at retail or even hailing a taxicab (Williams, Henderson, and Harris 2001; Oliver and Shapiro 1995; Feagin and Sikes 1994). While evidence of marketplace discrimination has been widely reported, and need not be reproduced here, the important related question of how consumers perceive and cope with the internal strains produced by discrimination remains an under-investigated topic in marketing. This is an important oversight, as research in sociology, anthropology and psychology has demonstrated how both stereotypes and perceptions of marketplace discrimination can largely structure customer-service provider interactions involving racial/ethnic minorities (e.g. Lee 2002; Chin 1998; Inman, Huerta, and Oh 1996). Thus we present findings from an exploratory investigation of consumer perceptions of marketplace discrimination and subsequent coping strategies.

We begin our analysis by developing a conceptualization of marketplace discrimination, drawing from extant research on race-related stressors, strains, and perceived discrimination, as well as literature on coping strategies. We then describe and present the results of in-depth interviews with a group of African-American males. These results are discussed in light of their illustration of race-related stress and strain resulting from perceived marketplace discrimination, as well as the emergent coping strategies these men employ in response. Finally, the implications of this research for consumer behavior scholarship and public policy are addressed.

CONCEPTUAL FOUNDATIONS OF MARKETPLACE DISCRIMINATION: RACE-RELATED STRESS AND PERCEIVED DISCRIMINATION

The investigation of discriminatory treatment involving in-groups and out-groups, particularly based on "master status" social categories, i.e. race, class, and gender, is foundational in sociological analysis. Sociologists discuss discrimination as consisting of "imposing differential treatment on the group in various fields of social life, a treatment in which the group itself participates, along lines which render it inferior" (Wieviorka 1995, p. 54). Following this definition, marketplace discrimination involves the differential treatment of customers in the marketplace based on perceived group-level traits that produce outcomes favorable to "in-groups" and unfavorable to "out-groups". Importantly, the arrangement of in-groups and out-groups is likely to be consistent with the existing structure of racial inequality, such that Whites receive the most favorable treatment and Blacks the least (see Bobo and Massagali 2001). Of course in a context where such treatment runs counter to articulated social norms regarding fairness at least some aspects of marketplace discrimination are based on the situated perspective of its recipients. As such, where marketplace discrimination actually occurs it is often subtle and elusive, making its effects difficult to verify and difficult to document except through the eyes of its victims (Dovidio and Gaertner 1999, 1991).