Post-Modern Race and Gender Essentialism or a Post-Mortem of Scholarship

Beyond Vernacular Commentary: A Response to Minelle Mahtani

“…Taken as a whole, her commentary suggests that non-White scholars possess the truth about racism and that White scholars hide behind methods, scholarly standards, and arguments about balanced analyses. These kinds of simplistic comments, which function to subordinate the substance of one's arguments to mystifying cultural interpretations of their skin tone, are not new -an extended discussion of essentialization can be found in the literature on the race relations industry (see, for example, Miles, 1982, andJhappan, 1996) and on the authorship/authentication requirements associated with confessionalism in race studies (see Satzewich, 2007). Of course it matters who speaks about certain aspects of race and racism, and it matters that we take seriously the socio-historical and cultural contexts in which discourse on race and racism unfolds.…”

Racism, Ethnicity and Criminology. Developing Minority Perspectives

“…This avoids excluding white academics and researchers because they cannot 'speak for' minorities -a form of 'race credentialism' according to Jhappan (1996), and also promotes a responsibility to confront social positioning in research, policy and practice. Rather the key requirement is a conscious stance and commitment to a number of guiding principles which, in the beginning, bearing in mind positionality, may be more easily conceptualised and operationalised by minority academics and researchers.…”

A Missing Voice

“…This strategy is also used in feminist and other professional literature to include people of colour and some marginalized groups (Bedassigae-Pheasant, 1996;bell hooks, 1992Bishop, 1994;Collins, 1991;Findlay, 1993;Jhappan, 1996;Kivel, 1996;Smith, 1990;Suarez, Lewis, & Clark, 1995). This approach, indisputably, has provided them some avenues to voice Asian ideas.…”

“…Henry, Tator, Mattis and Rees (1995) and Pleasant-Jette (1996) argue that to deny this existence is to encourage the growth of oppression and perpetuate social inequality. It is thus important to foster an environment that allows a critical, dialectical exchange of ideas and thoughts (Jhappan, 1996) to take place within the discourse. Leonard (1997) believes that this kind of exchange will not fragment the solidarity of a community or a group but, rather, permits us to validate and consolidate the diverse standpoints existing in our community, an essential element in all democratic societies and progressive social movements.…”