#272: Sociology’s Race Problem

Robyn Autry: “Sociology should matter now more than ever. Yet it disappoints, because it doesn’t know its others very well. I should know, because I am Black, and I’m a sociologist who has had (mostly white) professors and colleagues attempt to teach me about being Black since I was first an undergraduate. It’s an odd position to be in: to find myself the object that my peers make a living off examining.”

In this outstanding essay, Prof. Autry takes the common criticism of the stereotypical white savior academic and extends her critique to include the entire discipline of sociology. She writes, “The white savior supports brutal policies in the morning, founds charities in the afternoon, and receives awards in the evening.” Affirming historian Saidiya Hartman’s analysis of social scientists as “near-vampires” who “feed on the lifeblood of the ghetto, long for it and loathe it,” Prof. Autry argues that ethnography in particular, in its attempt to legitimize its existence, ends up perpetuating the status quo, rather than unpacking or dismantling it. (18 min)

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