Anthropology as White Public Space?

Abstract

How far has anthropology come in becoming racially inclusive? In this article, we analyze an online survey of anthropology graduate students and faculty of color undertaken by the AAA Commission on Race and Racism in Anthropology. Despite some progress, institutional and attitudinal barriers remain. We use the concept of "white public space" to analyze these barriers: departmental labor is divided in ways that assign to faculty and graduate students of color responsibilities that have lower status and rewards than those of their white counterparts.Colorblind racial explanatory practices-discourses that explain away racially unequal institutional practices as being "not about race"-are common. We argue that such practices make many anthropology departments feel like whiteowned social and intellectual spaces. We conclude by suggesting steps with which anthropology departments can create more inclusive social spaces that are owned equally by scholars of color and their white peers. [racism and anthropology, racial division of labor, diversity, race avoidance, white public space]

Family and the field: Expectations of a field-based research career affect researcher family planning decisions

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Black Feminist Theory in Prehistory

“…Scholars decry the lack of minorities and women in their fields and in positions of power, and these are issues addressed in particular in the social sciences; however, discussion is not action, and discussion is not enough to counter the effects of a broader racist and sexist system. Diversity is seen as a social good, but not necessarily a disciplinary good, and that less-valued work is typically left to minorities and women (Brodkin et al 2011;Rockquemore and Laszloffy 2008). As long as this is the case, the academy will remain a de facto White masculine space with ghettoes of women's and ethnic studies.…”

Special Section: Anthropology of White Supremacy

“…In this introduction and special section, we specifically want to stress how the history of anthropology depends on racialist imperial logics based on the privileging of whiteness. We assert that the social conditions of whiteness (and Otherness) continue to be embedded in the notions of “evidence” and “discovery,” in whom—and how—we study anthropologically and in the perpetuation of anthropology as “white public space” (Brodkin, Morgen, and Hutchinson ). Indeed, as Brodkin, Morgen, and Hutchinson () have shown, anthropology is a white intellectual and social space that perpetuates unequal hiring practices and labor divisions through discourses of being “not about race.”…”

“…For example, most anthropologists of color are not hired in anthropology departments, and “racialized minority faculty are more likely to be in ethnic or gender studies departments, and in departments without anthropology in their title.” When they are found in anthropology departments, they are cross‐ or joint‐appointed in other departments and programs . Coming into anthropology through “the back door,” scholars of color are split between multiple departments (usually ethnic or cultural studies) to satisfy “diversity” hires, are often excluded from true decision making within the discipline, and are heaped with extra, invisible labor (Brodkin, Morgen, and Hutchinson , 545; Dávila , 39; Harrison , 53) . Last, topics and areas of focus have also been laden with colonialist dynamics that are tied to white supremacist classificatory structures.…”