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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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the United States, race and racism are woven into the very fabric of the welfare state. Racial antipathy has undermined public support for benefits perceived as favoring African Americans and has resulted in significant cuts in programs for the poor. Recently, some studies have found that public discussion on immigration has linked attitudes toward Hispanics and illegal immigrants with preferences toward programs once overwhelmingly influenced by racial attitudes. Building on this literature, the present study assesses the effect of racial and ethnic attitudes on state policy outcomes. Specifically, we examine Medicaid eligibility criteria for four categories of beneficiaries, ranked by level of perceived deservingness. We find that eligibility limits are most generous for children, followed by pregnant women and parents. Benefits for "other adults" (low-income non-parents aged 18–64) are subject to more stringent eligibility criteria or entirely unavailable. In contrast with the limits for other groups, the primary attitudinal predictors of Medicaid eligibility limits for the "other adults" category are antipathy toward Blacks, Hispanics, and illegal immigrants. These results confirm that perceptions of deservingness are a central component of U.S. social policy and demonstrate that material policy outcomes – not just policy preferences – are substantially shaped by attitudes toward Hispanics and immigrants as well as African Americans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article compares the discourse on immigration found in Atlanta's African-American press ( Atlanta Daily World) to that found in Atlanta's mainstream press ( Atlanta Journal-Constitution). The Daily World's black counterdiscourse situates immigration within a racial frame, discussing Latinos and immigrants interchangeably and casting African Americans as deserving yet excluded citizens. Immigrants appear in the Daily World as either allies in the struggle for civil rights or as competitors for jobs. Although the Daily World crime frames focus on concerns about racial profiling, the Journal-Constitution often depicts immigrants as criminals or discusses immigration in terms of legal status and policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]