"West Indianness" as an Ethnographic Presentation of Self in the Field: Black Canadians Across The Border

Abstract

Researchers have shown ethnography to be a communicating tool of a social world under study, thereby educating the reading audience. However, being in the "field" as a researcher who is marked by a race, ethnicity, and nationality presents challenges to the way our participants see the researcher and therefore to the type of data collected about a given social group. Despite this, researchers tend to push this information into the background of their analyses. This paper considers how a Canadian researcher of West Indian background used "West Indianness" in sociological field research as a methodological tool for participant recruitment and the maintenance of insider status while clearly marked as "other" because of national birthplace. This research stems from an ethnography in gentrified Brooklyn, New York from 2004‐2007 with West Indian childcare providers. Results show how the insider/outsider presentaEon of self as a Canadian West Indian accommodated and at times hindered the research process while in the field. This paper explores how ethnographers can incorporate a more nuanced reflexivity of this insider and outsider status and relate it back to the analysis of their work as they re(present) their research.