Race" as an Interaction Order Phenomenon: W.E.B. Du Bois's "Double Consciousness" Thesis Revisited (original) (raw)
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Language and Race Constructing the Self and Imagining the Other in the U.S. and Beyond
“No, no, no, no. You gotta listen to the way people talk! You don't say "affirmative", or some crap like that. You say "no problemo". […]. And if you want to shine them on it's "hasta la vista, baby". In this famous exchange from the 1991 blockbuster Terminator 2, the young hero of the film was teaching his cyborg friend (Arnold Schwarzenegger), how to speak like a “real person”. These famous lines epitomize what has become the rather common conversational practice of interspersing English with Spanish (or Spanish sounding words). In a similar fashion, the rising popularity of hip-hop culture contributed to spread among US urban youth linguistic practices that were once considered to be a prerogative of the African American Speech Community. Standard American English has gradually incorporated lexical items and expressions traditionally belonging to linguistic minorities. But what is the semiotic and cultural logic underlying these habits? What are the implications of these conversational practices for the reproduction of certain cultural representations of historically Spanish-speaking populations in the US? How does the appropriation of African American Vernacular English by white upper middle class American teenagers participate in the production of certain forms of youth identities? How can we interpret these forms of cultural mimicry and appropriation? How does language operate as an index of distance, solidarity, and power among social groups? How do social actors use language to craft racialized representations of individual and collective “selves” in colonial and post-colonial contexts? This course explores the varied and sometimes surprising interconnections between language and race. The aim will be to show how language is a primary locus for the production of stereotypes, the performance of identity, the presentation of the self, and the reproduction (or the challenge) of social inequalities. We will scrutinize the role of linguistic ideologies in the colonial encounter, explore the interplay between language and the construction of hegemonic power, and examine the connection between communicative practices and the reproduction of racial discourse and racial stereotypes. This course explores the interplay of language and race in the communicative practices of social actors. Race and racism will not be investigated as dimensions of the individual’s moral consciousness. Indeed, rather than focusing on people’s minds and intentions, we will concentrate on what people do when they interact with one another. Moving away from the idea that racism is a phenomenon of the past or a prerogative of conservatives and uneducated others, this course constitutes a reading (and hopefully an experiential) journey through the interplay between language and race. This course will not offer a history of the evolution and transformation of racist discourse in the United States. It will not provide a thorough overview of the controversy over biological and cultural ideas of race. It does not aim at charting out the sociology of racial groups in America, nor does it plan on investigating quantitative data about the interplay among race, class, and social inequality in institutional settings.
Race talk: The psychology of racial dialogues
American Psychologist, 2013
Constructive dialogues on race have been proposed as a means to heal racial and ethnic divides, reduce prejudice and misinformation, increase racial literacy, and foster improved race relations. Studies on the psychology of racial dialogues indicate social and academic norms that dictate against race talk between White Americans and persons of color: (a) the politeness protocol, (b) the academic protocol, and (c) the color-blind protocol. These protocols discourage race talk and allow society to enter into a conspiracy of silence regarding the detrimental impact oppression plays on persons of color. Facilitating difficult dialogues on race requires educators to recognize what makes such discussions difficult. For people of color, engaging in race talk exposes them to microaggressions that invalidate and assail their racial/ethnic identities. For Whites, honest discussions are impeded by fears of appearing racist, of realizing their racism, of acknowledging White privilege, and of taking responsibility to combat racism.
Academic Questions, 2016
It's not me, it's you. Owing to pervasive racism, says Asian American Columbia University professor of psychology and education Derald Wing Sue-along with many others-life weighs down oppressively on black people (and other minorities). We cannot probe the roots of this racism with the hope of destroying it, Sue argues in Race Talk and the Conspiracy of Silence: Understanding and Facilitating Difficult Dialogues on Race, without fully and honestly addressing relevant issues and without whites admitting their part. Sue is far from wrong, of course; unless toughened by engagement with contrasting ideas, brains turn to mush. But to what extent is he right? Are whites the proper targets for Sue's totalizing condemnation, as delivered in this book? Can whites help solve problems facing our black brothers and sisters? Suffice it to say, for what it is worth, that no one I know would fail to thrill to the long overdue realization of full equality for black people in America. What precisely led to Sue's "conspiracy of silence" that can be broken only with "difficult dialogues"? Black people do not speak their piece, he explains, because, as a subordinated group, they worry about losing hard-won gains. White people, by contrast, hold their peace, fearful that anyone speaking out will be labeled a "racist," perhaps the most damning pejorative used today. As a consequence of the cultural hypersensitivity of our times, I might add, whites understand today that any comment about black people can be instantly perceived as a microagression. An illustration: A declaration that "All Lives Matter" is understood by many today as an in-your-face rejection of "Black Lives Matter," and not as a friendly reminder to a high-spirited, combative movement that protestations not with standing, all lives door should-matter. Another factor affecting white speech in Sue's psychosocial view is that knowing that they are widely
‘Race’ talk: discourses on ‘race’ and racial difference
International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 2003
The present article examines the responses to racism and ‘racial’ signifiers in the discourses of 33 black South Africans prior to, and after 1994, the year that marked the end of formal Apartheid and legislated racism in South Africa. More specifically, the article analyzes two corpuses of discourses, the first produced by a group of 26 black adults between 1992 and 1993, and the second by a group of seven high school students interviewed in 1999. One of the basic assumptions that informed the analyses of these discourses was that, since 1994, ‘racial’ signifiers, due to a range of factors, would have become increasingly valorized in the discourses of black South Africans. And indeed, it was found that in the discourses produced by the group of high school students in 1999, notions of ‘race’ and ‘racial’ difference were accepted and utilized in a much less critical manner than in the discourses produced by the group of black adults prior to 1994. The possible reasons for this trend are explored in the latter half of the article.
2013
This report contributes to the study of racial discourse by examining some of the practical asymmetries that obtain between different categories of racial membership as they are actually employed in talk-in-interaction. In particular, we identify three interactional environments in which the ordinarily “invisible” racial category “white” is employed overtly, and we describe the mechanisms through which this can occur. These mechanisms include 1) “white” surfacing “just in time” as an account for action, 2) the occurrence of referential ambiguities with respect to race occasioning repairs that result in overt references to “white,” and 3) the operation of a recipient design consideration that we term “descriptive adequacy.” These findings demonstrate some ways in which the mundane invisibility of whiteness – or indeed, other locally invisible racial categories – can be both exposed and disturbed as a result of ordinary interactional processes, revealing the importance of the generic ...
When are persons 'white'?: on some practical asymmetries of racial reference in talk-in-interaction
Discourse & Society, 2009
This report contributes to the study of racial discourse by examining some of the practical asymmetries that obtain between different categories of racial membership as they are actually employed in talk-ininteraction. In particular, we identify three interactional environments in which the ordinarily 'invisible' racial category 'white' is employed overtly, and we describe the mechanisms through which this can occur. These mechanisms include: (1) 'white' surfacing 'just in time' as an account for action; (2) the occurrence of referential ambiguities with respect to race occasioning repairs that result in overt references to 'white'; and (3) the operation of a recipient design consideration that we term 'descriptive adequacy'. These findings demonstrate some ways in which the mundane invisibility of whiteness -or indeed, other locally invisible racial categoriescan be both exposed and disturbed as a result of ordinary interactional processes, revealing the importance of the generic machinery of talk-ininteraction for understanding both the reproduction of and resistance to the racial dynamics of everyday life.
Race Matters in Talk in Inter-Racial Interaction
2018
Contemporary research indicates that Indigenous people are under-represented in the Australian higher education sector and that on-campus university relations and communications between Indigenous and Non-Indigenous persons may be a problem. However, actual talk in interaction between Indigenous and Non-Indigenous Australians in university settings has not been examined. Drawing on Ethnomethodology (EM) and its analytic methods, Conversation Analysis (CA) and Membership Categorisation Analysis (MCA), this study examines interaction between Indigenous and Non-Indigenous persons, who are participating in a focus group activity discussing experiences of university in a university setting in Australia. Data are audio-recordings of non-contrived focus group interaction between Indigenous and Non-Indigenous persons. These are transcribed using the Jeffersonian transcription system. This study's examination of linguistic, conversational and categorial resources shows that race matters ...