A Cow Does Not Suddenly Become a Fish: Media Discourses of Racial Essentialism

• In Event: 452 - Section on Racial and Ethnic Minorities Refereed Roundtable Session and Business Meeting
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 14. Racial Identity

Abstract

The link between racial identity and genetics, ancestry, and phenotype has been historically contentious. Recent media debates brought these issues to the fore when Rachel Dolezal, an activist born to white parents, publicly identified herself as ‘black’ and ‘transracial.’ Despite sound scientific evidence establishing no genetic basis for the concept of race, mainstream journalism largely responded to the Dolezal controversy with the proposition that racial identity is the byproduct of genetic traits. In this article, I approach the rhetoric and ideologies constituting this Dolezal media storm as a case study on the relationship between racial identities and racial background. Through examination of United States-based newspaper articles (N=263) published in the aftermath of the Dolezal controversy, I assess contemporary media discourse surrounding racial essentialism, identity, and cultural appropriation. I uncover that mainstream media narratives from all sides of the political spectrum, even progressive and scholarly sources, construct and reinforce a narrative of racial essentialism, often unintentionally and cloaked within a language of racial authenticity and cultural appropriation. These results question the impact that the social constructionist perspective on race has had on mainstream media understandings of the relationship between race and biology.

Author

• Devon R. Goss, University of Connecticut