25 March 2023
Ep. 16 | How to Talk About Race without Reproducing Racism; A conversation with Dr. Deadric Williams
#RaceClass
About
Consider the following two sentences:
“White students are often over-represented on elite college campuses.”
“Students racialized as white are often over-represented on elite college campuses.”
The first might seem unobjectionable. The second might seem awkward and jargony. The challenge is, the phrase “white students” implies that “white” is some natural (perhaps even biological) trait that some people inherently possess. This contradicts the basic insight that race isn’t biological—to the contrary, people created “race” to rationalize social inequality and acts of extreme violence (including enslavement and conquest). Even if we know race is socially constructed, when our language treats racial categories as natural, it invites the conclusion that group-based inequality is also natural. So shifting language isn’t just about the words. It’s also the meaning those words convey. Thankfully, Dr. Deadric Williams, an Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Tennessee, joined #RaceClass to make it all make sense. For more insight from Dr. Williams, visit his website or follow him on Twitter.
#RaceClass Reqs: (1) A Call to Focus on Racial Domination and Oppression (Williams); (2) Family Structure, Risks, and Racial Stratification in Poverty (Williams & Baker)
“White students are often over-represented on elite college campuses.”
“Students racialized as white are often over-represented on elite college campuses.”
The first might seem unobjectionable. The second might seem awkward and jargony. The challenge is, the phrase “white students” implies that “white” is some natural (perhaps even biological) trait that some people inherently possess. This contradicts the basic insight that race isn’t biological—to the contrary, people created “race” to rationalize social inequality and acts of extreme violence (including enslavement and conquest). Even if we know race is socially constructed, when our language treats racial categories as natural, it invites the conclusion that group-based inequality is also natural. So shifting language isn’t just about the words. It’s also the meaning those words convey. Thankfully, Dr. Deadric Williams, an Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Tennessee, joined #RaceClass to make it all make sense. For more insight from Dr. Williams, visit his website or follow him on Twitter.
#RaceClass Reqs: (1) A Call to Focus on Racial Domination and Oppression (Williams); (2) Family Structure, Risks, and Racial Stratification in Poverty (Williams & Baker)