“I Can Never Be Too Comfortable” Race, Gender, and Emotion at the Hospital Bedside

Emotion is both an outcome and a mechanism of inequality. Scholars working in the area of emotion and race have begun to examine unique dimensions of racialized emotional labor, demonstrating the influence of race on emotion management within historically white organizations and institutions. This chapter examines how overlapping race and gender hierarchies infuse physical bodies. Emotional labor includes the management of negative emotions and the cultivation/performance of positive emotions as determined by the nursing role. Centering the vignettes of Nora, Tamara, and Joyce, the chapter explores the relationship between race, gender, and emotion practice in nursing care. Nora is a black woman who works primarily with psychiatric patients. Women nurses of color experienced racial microaggressions from patients, patient families, and coworkers, primarily in assumptions of their inferiority and incompetence and subsequent patient noncompliance. Conflict with coworkers of all races can create an added layer of self-doubt and frustration.