Critical Race Theory, Methodology, and Semiotics: The Analytical Utility of a “Race” Conscious Approach for Visual Qualitative Research

Abstract

Over the last 30 years, Critical Race Theory (CRT) has been applied successfully as an analytical framework, through which, to explore matters of “race,” racialization, and subordination in numerous fields. For CRT to continue to be relevant, there is a need to reorient it as a guiding analytical framework, to account for the ubiquity of digital technologies across liberal Western democracies and the ways in which they have radically changed social and cultural production. During this article, we wish to extend this argument further and encourage the development of critical race methodologies (CRMs) fit for the (hyper)digital moment, so we are equipped better to challenge the persistence of racialized hierarchies and the emerging cultural circumstances in which they operate. It identifies the philosophical principles that underpin CRMs and concludes by outlining critical race semiotics (CRS) as an analytical tool dedicated to human emancipation, particular to our highly visual culture.