Whiteness, Mobility, and 'The Line' in Hochschild's Strangers In Their Own Land

• In Event: Narrative and Political Theory: Experimentation, Canon Dynamics, and Reinvention

Abstract

As a mythic narrative of social mobility, the American Dream is often framed in terms of equality, effort, and meritocracy; that is, given equal opportunity and unequal effort, the unequal outcomes produced are justifiably meritocratic. In Strangers In Their Own Land, Arlie Russell Hochschild provides us with a new iteration of this mythic narrative. In contrast to conventional narrative of the Dream, Hochschild’s narrative is distinctive in its explicitly racialized character; this, I argue, is crucial for explaining white resentment towards the success of people of color in her account.
According to Hochschild, ‘The Line’ is a “deep story” or “the story feelings tell” (Hochschild, 135) about how poor whites in Louisiana feel regarding their prospects for achieving the American Dream. As Hochschild describes it, ‘The Line’ refers to the line we are all standing in—with poor whites in the middle of the line and people of color behind them—which leads up and over the hill where the goal of the American Dream lies. Through hard work and patience, the line moves forward and eventually, one reaches the front of the line and achieves the Dream. However, as Hochschild notes, the line does not seem to be moving, people of color are ‘line-cutting,’ and poor whites are resentful. And while Hochschild and her commentators rightly observe the racialized character of the line and that poor whites are resentful at advancements by people of color, they understate the relationship between the two. This paper argues that the former explains the latter. Specifically, I argue that The Line is a racialized narrative of social mobility—that is, the expectation of poor whites that their interests, including the achievement of the Dream, ought to be prioritized ahead of people of color—and this explains white resentment at Black advancement. Given the racialized character of the line, the very fact of Black advancement is a violation of the line’s order; as a result, poor whites view Black advancement as a form of ‘line-cutting’ or an illegitimate form of success. Beyond merely describing the feelings of poor whites in Louisiana regarding their prospects for social mobility, then, The Line is also a racialized, normative theory of how poor whites imagine what it means to legitimately achieve the Dream. In this way, the narrative of The Line reveals far more than Hochschild thinks it does.
In Part One, I reconstruct Hochschild’s narrative of ‘The Line,’ pointing out two key features. First, poor whites accept the racialized nature of the line; that is, they do not question the line’s racial constitution in which poor whites are ahead of people of color. And second, social mobility refers primarily to the line, not to particular individuals. So, while the line moves forward, the order of the line—that is, where one is situated in relation to others—remains the same. Part Two lays out the implication of these two features: the assumption of white priority in the legitimate achievement of the Dream. In this section, I show how this racialized assumption explains why poor whites view Black success as illegitimate and become resentful. Because poor whites take for granted that the line is racialized—and hence, the fixed place one inhabits in line—they assume that they will achieve the Dream first, followed (if at all) by people of color. This implies that as long as poor whites exist, they will consider the achievement of the Dream by people of color as illegitimate, or a form of ‘line-cutting,’ which generates resentment. Moreover, their racialized understanding of the Dream is made clearer when we contrast their disdain for non-white advancement with their admiration of white advancement; namely, those who are at the front of the line, figuratively speaking. Part Three lays out some implications of understanding social mobility according to Hochschild’s narrative, particularly in contrast with more conventional narratives that employ vertical imagery—such as ‘climbing the ladder’—and are ostensibly color-blind.

Author

• Jennie Choi Ikuta, University of Missouri-Columbia