Emotion regulation at work as racialized emotional labor

Due to social hierarchies, all workers do not experience the same emotional regulation demands. In this chapter, we review the scholarship examining whether and how employee racial-ethnic group membership increases emotion regulation demands, adding another layer to the occupational display rules and emotional events that employees experience. Drawing on psychology and sociology perspectives, we review racialized emotional expectations (e.g., norms, stereotypes) and racialized emotional events (e.g., selective incivility, meta-threats). We review qualitative and quantitative evidence for racialized emotional labor, where minoritized employees face additional expectations and experiences, and are more strongly penalized for not regulating emotions, ultimately creating a greater emotional labor burden. We conclude by identifying necessary directions for future research.