Negotiations of the Complicitous Nature of US Racial/Ethnic Categorization: Exploring Rhetorical Strategies

Abstract

This analysis explores the multiple ways in which diverse individuals negotiate the complicitous nature of U.S. racial and ethnic categories in terms of self-descriptive labels. Specifically, we draw from narratives of 100 individuals who participated in 13 different focus groups over a 9-month period (September 2006 to May 2007). These discussions provide significant insight into the complex ways in which US citizens—native born, first- and second-generation, including persons of Asian, Hispanic, African, and European descent—negotiate US racial and ethnic classifications. Utilizing complicity theory (McPhail, 1994, 2002; Patton, 2004) as a frame, we found that US citizens of European and African descent enact rhetoric that complies with rigid conceptualizations of race. Additionally, people of color were more likely than White Americans to question US categories for race and ethnicity. However, through their everyday rhetoric, individuals who were born primarily in the Caribbean or Central and South America and then immigrated to the US were most likely to resist essentialist racial and ethnic labels. Our article concludes with a discussion of how the study contributes to complicity theory, increases our understanding of the complexities inherent in attempts to transform existing racial and ethnic labels, and ultimately can work to enhance social justice work.