Repositioning Race: Prophetic Research in a Postracial Obama Age

Epilogue: Back to the Future of Race Studies

Epilogue • Back to the Future of Race Studies A New Millennium Du Boisian Mode of Inquiry Persistent inequities in the supposed postracial era highlight the enduring significance of race and race studies. These inequities, manifested on structural and interpersonal levels, continue despite assertions that we have reached the “end of blackness” (Dickerson 2004) and are now in a definitively “post-Black” (Touré 2011) era. The papers in this collection illumine more subtle forms of racism and their implications for contemporary society. Although more covert than their antecedents, they are no less deleterious in their effects. Moreover, the works included in this volume show how racial inequities today are often ensconced in microlevel beliefs and behavior as well as macrolevel structures. And “colorblind” beliefs make identifying and combating this social problem challenging. The scholars and activists here contend that prophetic research and community action are necessary to stem the tide of postracial rhetoric and challenge “white-framed” racism that is integral to this postracial moment. Thus they offer new and unique ways of analyzing race and race matters through a prophetic mode of inquiry that is inherently inquisitive, proactive, culturally sensitive, introspective, collaborative, and creative. This repositioning of race based on a prophetic stance means recognizing that rigorous academic scholarship is impotent without applied 189 190 • Epilogue efforts and social policy that empower Black communities and other disenfranchised people worldwide. This volume, then, bridges the gap between the structural disadvantages disproportionately prevalent in Black communities across the Diaspora and the discursive articulations of Black identities, cultures, and experiences in the popular media. Through this volume, we recommit our sociological practice—and ourselves—to the legacy of cutting-edge race scholarship that coalesced in the founding of the Association of Black Sociologists (ABS). Yet, we recognize that while we are organizationally and intellectually indebted to the work, spirit, and legacy of founding members, this volume is also theoretically and methodologically indebted to the early sociological work of W. E. B. Du Bois. In many respects, our attempt to reframe the direction of race studies signals a resuscitation of the Atlanta Sociological Laboratory, the moniker bestowed on scholars engaged in sociological research at Atlanta University between 1895 and 1924 and led by Du Bois between 1897 and 1914. For nearly three decades the Atlanta Sociological Laboratory reported on the disparities Blacks experienced in America and produced findings used to positively impact their lives. Because of the nearly complete physical and social separation between Blacks and Whites, including those in the profession of sociology, the Jim Crow era efforts of this segregated group of scholars resulted in the development of a Black sociology that concentrated on academic and applied research as well as social policies to eliminate Blacks from social oppression on all fronts (Wright and Calhoun 2006). This work was multidisciplinary, methodologically mixed, and multifaceted. We contend that this type of research is especially needed today—and it must be relevant to the Black experience broadly defined and to other historically oppressed groups. This new millennium Du Boisian inquiry will reflect both the spirit and rigor of his original efforts—applied to a contemporary global context that is characterized by heterogeneic understandings of race and race matters. To conduct such inquiry, we must be willing to take critical positions on Black sociology such that our research, as well as teaching and service, does not become directly or indirectly entrenched in matters not relevant to the plight of disenfranchised groups in general and Black communities in particular. We contend that this volume represents one such endeavor. A new millennium Du Boisian inquiry moves the best of past academic practice into uncharted territory. It requires us to broaden our queries to consider international correlates, unexpected implications of our new racialized society, as well as subjects and sites that have been heretofore rarely investigated. For some people, this type of focus is exciting; for others it will bring trepidation. Yet the writ- Epilogue • 191 ers in this volume strove to expand and extend the Du Boisian legacy beyond Black-White dynamics with academically robust studies that can be applied across a plethora of domains and for a myriad of social groups. Their findings remind us afresh to ask the questions: What is race? What are the most common racial projects in society today? How are they linked to the past? What does racism look like? And how can we eradicate it? How are Blacks...