Practical Asymmetries of Racial Reference 1 When Are Persons “ White ” ? On Some Practical Asymmetries of Racial Reference in Talkin-Interaction 1 (original) (raw)
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2016
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 ge...
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.
The Cambridge Handbook of Discourse Studies, 2020
In this chapter, we discuss in detail the role of discourse in creating race and racialized categories, providing examples from recent research where applicable. We provide a historical overview of the topic, with an emphasis on two main theoretical approaches pertaining to discourse in this area: racial discourse and racialized linguistic practices. Throughout this chapter we highlight the flexible, contextual nature of discourse and racialization and the need to analyze its effects on racialized subjects, as its content is always shifting.
Justifying race talk: Indexicality and the social construction of race and linguistic value
Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, 2008
When individuals link linguistic behavior to speaker identity, they justify the differentiation of social types based on speech style, and also attach social value to ways of speaking. This study examines ten interviewees' racial characterizations of pre-recorded voices and highlights how they justify their identification of speaker types and speech styles as socially recognizable. Findings illustrate how interviewees formulate links between linguistic habits and social types with a range of accompanying interdiscursive justifications across orders of indexicality. Implications for theory and practice include connections between normative evaluative race talk and its role in the dialectic reproduction of language ideologies. [race talk, language ideologies, interdiscursivity, orders of indexicality, discourse analysis]
Discourse and Whiteness, 2020
Entry on discursive constructions and enactments of whiteness for the Encyclopedia of Critical Whiteness Studies in Education. Discourse and whiteness. In Z. Casey (Ed.), Encyclopedia of critical whiteness studies in education, pp. 133-143. Boston: Brill Sense.
Introduction: White Noise: Bringing Language into Whiteness Studies
Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, 2001
owes a special debt to anthropology. After all, the fundamental postulate of whiteness studies-that race is socially constructed-is based on extensive anthropological research extending back to Boas and continuing to the present moment (e.g., Harrison 1995Harrison ,1998. Moreover, as a phenomenon grounded in what Hill (this issue) calls the "culture of racism," the racial project of whiteness is especially suited to anthropological study. Indeed, anthropologists have been at the vanguard of scholarship in the critical investigation of whiteness. The influential studies of such researchers as Karen Brodkin (1998) and John Hartigan (1999) have enriched the field by demonstrating the importance of historical, geographic, and ethnographic specificity in understanding the workings of whiteness. It is important to acknowledge, too, that these insights, which Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 11(1):3-21.
Talking About Race: Shifting the Analytical Paradigm
Qualitative Inquiry, 2008
This article examines patterns of common-sense knowledge about race to understand how race is made to appear both self-evident and inherently meaningful in daily interactions. It explores a new methodological imaginary by drawing strategically from ethnomethodology and poststructural discourse analysis to examine the histories and the visions of power that rest beneath the surface of common-sense knowledge about race. Because common-sense knowledge links the production of meaning in local contexts to the broader production of cultural knowledge, it provides a key focal point for examining the dialogical relationship between the apparent agency of local practices and the efficacy of cultural discourse. The article concludes with implications for social research and social justice.