Negotiating whiteness through brownness: using intersectionality and transactional theory to capture racialised experiences of university campus life

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper aims to explore the potential of using dialogue between intersectional and pragmatist theorising of transactional social relations. By considering tensions within intersectional research, a position is developed which utilises a mutual constitution approach to intersectional theory and the dynamic, ongoing, complex social relations captured in pragmatist theorising. It is argued that from this position race and ethnicity become actions in which, for example, Whiteness and Brownness are defined in ongoing relation to each other. Example data from a pilot study, designed to explore experiences of campus life, is analysed using this action sense of race. The ‘Racing’ of experience within the data identifies how Whiteness and Brownness become constituted through a Male, South Asian, Muslim student’s experience of studying sport. Whiteness in this context becomes secular, partying, and sporty-bravado-competitive, while Brownness is supressed Islamic, working not to perpetuate crude Brown-Muslim stereotypes and upset convivial, post-racial discourses. It is envisaged that further data collection from student experiences of studying on the university campus will help to develop deeper insight, and importantly, dialogue about race, ethnicity and privilege.