The invisibility of race: intersectional reflections on the liminal space of alterity

Abstract

It has been argued that racialised Others occupy a liminal space of alterity; a position at the edges of society from which their identities and experiences are constructed. Rather than being regarded as a place of disadvantage and degradation, it has been posited that those excluded from the centre can experience a ‘perspective advantage’ as their experiences and analyses become informed by a panoramic dialectic offering a wider lens than the white majority located in the privileged spaces of the centre are able to deploy. In this article, I invite the reader to glimpse the world from this liminal positioning as I reflect critically on how the intersections between social class, race and gender variously advantage or disadvantage, depending on the context, the ways in which Black middle classes are able to engage with the education system. While I make reference to findings from a recent school-focused ESRC project ‘The Educational Strategies of the Black Middle Classes’ ¹ the article takes a wider perspective of the education system, also incorporating an autobiographical analysis of the academy as a site of tension, negotiation and challenge for the few Black middle classes therein. I make use of the Critical Race Theory tool of chronicling (counter-narrative) to help demonstrate the complex, multifaceted and often contradictory ways in which ambitions for race equality often represent lofty organisational ideals within which genuine understanding of racism is lacking.

Keywords:

• Whiteness
• marginality
• intersectionality
• Critical Race Theory
• Black middle classes

Acknowledgment

I would like to thank Gregg Beratan, Jide Fadipe and David Gillborn for their helpful comments on an earlier draft of this paper.

Notes

1. Economic & Social Research Council (RES-062-23-1880). I am carrying out this project with Professors Carol Vincent, Stephen Ball and David Gillborn.

2. Critical Race Theory recognises that racism is endemic and embedded as a normal part of the way in which society functions.

3. Lucy’s name is a pseudonym as are those used in relation to the Black Middle Classes project.

4. A ‘well-heeled,’ relatively affluent area of south-west London.

5. Caran d’Ache is a Swiss based company specialising in writing instruments. According to their website: ‘In that area of emotions where writing and images fuse together, graceful shapes, vigorous lines and deep colours create the passion that Caron d’Ache has for Fine Writing.’ Only certain girls (white, middle class) owned these pencils. They were presented in flat, Caron D’Ache presentation box sets of 30 to 40 coloured pencils – ‘the first water-soluble colour pencil since 1931’ – that when dipped in water produced an effect not dissimilar to water paints. www.carandache.ch/m/les-instruments-d-ecriture-et-accessoires/index.lbl (last accessed 15 November 2010).

6. Preparatory schools are independent schools that prepare young children for continued (usually secondary) education in fee-paying schools.

7. Dill and Zambrana (2009, 4) define Intersectionality as a framework that examines the ‘relationships and interactions between multiple axes of identity and multiple dimensions of social organization – at the same time.’ Intersectionality is particularly useful as a means of reframing and creating new ways of studying power and inequality and challenging traditional modes of thinking about marginalised groups.

8. All of the reviews are entirely fictional.

9. The Research Excellence Framework is a process through which the quality of the research work of academics and UK higher education institutions is assessed. This is a highly competitive process which sees financial rewards attached to the highest university outcomes. http://www.hefce.ac.uk/research/ref/ (accessed 11 November 2010)

10. I am grateful to and have been inspired by the work of Derrick Bell, one of the key proponents of Critical Race Theory, who in a chapter entitled ‘The Rules of Racial Standing’ emphasizes some of the contradictions evident when in naming racism as a problem in a society where whites continue to deny its existence (Bell 1992).

11. See Rollock et al. (2011).

12. For example, see Rollock (2011).