Colorblind Spots in Qualitative Methods Training

Academia, like many other institutions, is experiencing a racial reckoning. As part of this reckoning, members of institutions of higher education are reflecting on how their structures and cultures reproduce racial inequality and how to disrupt the cycle. One aspect of this conversation that has escaped scrutiny has been methodological training, which can be central to the reproduction of inequality via the marginalization of researchers of color. Qualitive methods guidance and instruction has been criticized for leaving scholars of color unprepared to navigate the complex racial dynamics they confront in the field. In this article we build on these conversations by discussing colorblind spots that surfaced in our graduate-level qualitative methods course in Sociology related to one-time field exercises and fieldwork in a continuous site. We conclude with reflections and recommendations for ethnographic training courses.

Othello as a play-within-the-film in post-independence Indian cinema1

This article aims to explore the appropriation of Othello as a play-within-the-film in three Indian movies: Anbu (Natesan 1953), Saptapadi (Kar 1961) and Ratha Thilagam (Mirasi 1963). Anbu and Ratha Thilagam are Tamil movies, whereas Saptapadi is an example of Bengali cinema. In the three films, the same scene from Shakespeare’s Othello – the murder scene – is performed as part of college theatricals. Although the films immediately associate Shakespeare with education, their appropriation of Othello goes beyond a college performance and provides insight on the main plot. The performance of the murder scene foreshadows the rest of the plot (Anbu and Ratha Thilagam), and explores racial dynamics and miscegenation in relation to the protagonists in Saptapadi. Anbu, Saptapadi and Ratha Thilagam introduce variations to the plot to add new layers of meaning. As the three films are set in postcolonial India, the use of the Shakespearean play inevitably becomes a site of negotiation between colonizers and colonized; the three films negotiate changing controversial political issues across the time period to which they all belong. Anbu, Saptapadi and Ratha Thilagam generate then a new understanding of Othello, which becomes paramount to trace the evolution of Shakespeare in postcolonial India.

‘Elf Lives Matter’? The racial dynamics of participatory politics in a predominantly White fandom

Declining rates of political participation in the West have led to increasing scholarly interest in the potential for participatory culture to re-engage marginalised citizens. Media fandom has, in particular, been hailed as a gateway to a new era of ‘participatory politics’. However, the implications of a politics founded on popular culture within a racially segmented media landscape is under-researched. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in Dragon Age fandom on Tumblr, this article analyses how the racial dynamics of a predominantly White fandom impact upon participatory politics, taking as a case study the analogy fans made between elves and real-world racial minority groups. It argues for the dangers of founding political action upon predominantly White content worlds, with non-White fans disproportionately burdened with the task of contesting implicit racial hegemonies. Without this work, however, there is the risk that a participatory politics based on White content worlds will perpetuate racial injustice.

Sean Metzger, The Chinese Atlantic: Seascapes and the Theatricality of Globalization

Analysing dozens of case studies from the Caribbean, England, and South Africa, Metzger explores how circulations of Chineseness in the Atlantic have been imagined through aesthetic objects. The Chinese Atlantic is a dense and at times difficult read that challenges easy understandings of the racial dynamics of either term Chinese or Atlantic.

White men and electric guns: Analysing the Amazonian dystopia through Shipibo-Konibo children’s drawings

In Andean countries, the pishtaco is understood as a White-looking man that steals Indigenous people’s organs for money. In contemporary Amazonia, the Shipibo-Konibo people describe the pishtaco as a high-tech murderer, equipped with a sophisticated laser gun that injects electricity inside a victim’s body. This paper looks at this dystopia through Shipibo-Konibo children’s drawings, presenting composite sketches of the pishtaco and maps of the village before and after an attack. Children portrayed White men with syringes and electric guns as weaponry, while discussing whether organ traffickers could also be mestizos nowadays. Meanwhile, the comparison of children’s maps before and after the attack reveals that lit lampposts are paradoxically perceived as a protection at night. The paper examines changing features of pishtacos and the dual capacity of electricity present in children’s drawings. It argues that children know about shifting racial dynamics in the village’s history and recognise development’s oxymoron: the same electricity that can be a weapon is also used as a shield.

Unearthing the entangled roots of urban agriculture

This study examines urban agriculture (UA) in Sacramento, California (USA), the nation's self-branded “Farm-to-Fork Capital,” in order to highlight UA’s distinct yet entangled roots. The study is based on 24 interviews with a diverse array of UA leaders, conducted as part of a five-year transdisciplinary study of UA in Sacramento. In it, we unearth three primary “taproots” of UA projects, each with its own historical legacies, normative visions, and racial dynamics. In particular, we examine UA projects with “justice taproots,” “health taproots,” and “market taproots.” We use this analysis to understand how different kinds of UA projects are embedded in racial capitalism in ways that transform relationships between people, the city, and food systems. Unearthing these entangled roots helps illuminate UA’s underlying politics, showing how these roots grow in both competitive and symbiotic ways within the soil matrix of racial capitalism. We argue that these roots interact differently with racial capitalism, creating disparities in their growth trajectories. In particular, UA projects associated with the justice taproot are historically underrepresented and undervalued. However, we argue that there are some prospects for building alliances between the UA movement’s three roots, and that these are both promising and problematic.

Community Courts & Race: An Examination of Community Court Judges, Staff, and Racial Dynamics

Current research has found racial disparities in outcomes of problem-solving courts throughout the country. However, most of the research has not explored the causes of these racial disparities. This research qualitatively explores two prominent community courts in the northeast. Themes emerge about courtroom racial dynamics through courtroom observations and semi-structured interviews. The findings indicate that the racial makeup of the staff and judges play a role in maintaining a therapeutic rapport with non-white participants. Suggestions on how problem-solving courts can potentially improve racial dynamics are discussed.