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AbstractBiographical work is the process of shaping a cohesive life story by selectively giving meaning to past events. The resulting biographies are not simple recitations of life events but narratives that illuminate what is valued in a person's social context and how the person makes sense of life events and experiences over time. Drawing on 121 interviews from the Religious Leadership and Diversity Project (RLDP), this article investigates biographical work among head clergy of multiracial churches. I find that pastors of multiracial churches pattern their biographies after two predominant formula stories, laying claim to being people who are experienced with diversity and/or experienced with racial injustice. These formula stories reveal institutionalized understandings of biographies acceptable for pastors of multiracial churches that cut across denominational lines. The biographies of these leaders also reveal a shift toward diversity and away from recognition of racial injustice that has implications for the racial structure.

Double consciousness arises from a conflict between the negative appraisals of others and one's own positive self-appraisal. In this study, we link double consciousness with racialized status beliefs, or beliefs about the competency and worth of group members. Using first-order and generalized second-order evaluations of explicit status beliefs, we examine the consistency between how individuals view their own racial group and how they perceive their group to be viewed by others. Drawing on survey data, we find high agreement in generalized second-order status beliefs among racial groups but misalignment between these evaluations and first-order status beliefs for marginalized groups. Black and Hispanic respondents exhibit double consciousness by rating their racial group as higher status than they understand most people to rate their group. The widespread existence of double consciousness in status beliefs has troubling implications for the development of racial identity among people of color and for equity.

Diverse organizations focus on appearing progressive but, in practice, may reproduce internal and external racial inequalities. Previous research has focused on how organizations with superficial levels of diversity may be detrimental to racial equity; are organizations with deep and sustained, cross-racial relationships any better? Drawing on in-depth interviews, field notes, and surveys of 121 head clergy of multiracial churches, we examine the strategies of leaders of multiracial churches to raise funds for their organizations. Our systematic analysis reveals how these, mostly White, religious leaders act as brokers by leveraging embeddedness with congregants of color, social and cultural capital within institutions valuing diversity, and the racial status of their organizations to gain access to social and organizational benefits. We develop a theoretical concept called "racialized social commodification" (RSC) to explore how leaders convert the racial capital of people of color into social and economic resources in contexts of substantive diversity. Through RSC, even organizations boasting strong, cross-racial relationships continue to reproduce racial inequality by protecting power and resource hierarchies that benefit White Americans.