Mechanisms, smoke and fun-house mirrors: when naming racism is not enough

Abstract

In this paper, I explain how public discourse around racism can hinder understanding of racist processes, becoming its own mechanism of racism. The general attribution of Flint's water crisis as a “clear case” of environmental racism, adopted by some state actors, serves as a key example. This ostensible progress in understanding can justify shutting off inquiry into underlying causes. Drawing on my experience studying racism in Michigan, describe how the production of collective tolerance for racial inequality is another essential mechanism reproducing racism. I build on research foregrounding the management of knowledge to explain how reactions including shock and inevitability can ultimately defang or coopt academic discourse. I conclude by suggesting ways researchers can navigate these obstacles, including by using the obstacles themselves as data. These methodological approaches will help researchers identify and counter hierarchies of credibility.