Disaster racism: using Black sociology, critical race theory and history to understand racial disparity to disaster in the United States

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to provide a call to action to use a new theoretical framework for disaster researchers that focuses on using a critical approach to understanding differential disaster impacts due to systemic racism.Design/methodology/approachUsing critical race theory (CRT) and Black Sociology, theoretical and disciplinary frameworks that center Black people and NBPOC as well as a focus in dismantling systemic racism and other oppressive systems, this article calls for a new approach – “disaster racism” – that builds on past discussions for a more nuanced theoretical approach to disaster studies.FindingsAlongside CRT and Black Sociology, this study identifies two examples of the oppressive systems that create disparate impacts to disaster including slavery and the legacy of slavery and mass incarceration.Originality/value“Disaster racism” – a critically focused approach – should be used in the future rather than social vulnerability to further dismantle oppressive systems and institutions, which not only provides strong theoretical backing to research but also creates an actively anti-racist research agenda in the discipline of sociology of disaster.

Augustus Granville Dill: A Case Study in the Conceptualization of a Black Public Sociology

Black sociology developed as a response to mainstream, white sociology’s failures to address the condition of Black people in the Unites States. Central to the practice of Black sociology is that it necessitates sociological work be used, where possible, for the benefit of Black people. The contemporary practice of public sociology has similar aims of bringing sociological knowledges to various publics to address their particular issues. The public sociology literature, though, fails to conceptualize or articulate praxes of public sociology that are constructed to address the unique needs of various communities. Using the biography of the little-known Black, queer sociologist Augustus Granville Dill (1881–1956) as a case study, the authors conceptualize a practice of Black public sociology as one of many public sociologies. Like Black sociology before, Black public sociology is a rearticulation of established sociological practice that centers on Black people and Black communities. Using the most comprehensive biography of Dill published to date, the authors examine how he transitioned from knowledge producer to knowledge disseminator via the practice of Black public sociology. This article, then, serves to highlight a Black, queer foreparent of the discipline and to use his forgotten story to inform the practice of contemporary public sociology.