The Racialized Interaction Order: Revisiting Du Bois and Mead on Intersubjectivity

• In Event: Student Forum Roundtables Session
  In Refereed Roundtable (90 minute): Roundtable 7: Race and Racialization

Abstract

This article introduces the concept of “racialized interaction order” to interrogate a central assumption in social theory: that social interaction is naturally oriented toward intelligibility and reciprocal recognition. It instead argues that intelligibility is a socially distributed condition, allocated through institutional presuppositions such as visibility, credibility, and moral status. Through a critical dialogue between Mead and Du Bois, the article shows how classical theories of intersubjectivity presume symmetrical conditions of role-taking, while racialized social worlds are constituted through enduring asymmetries. By situating interactionism within broader processes of canon formation, the article further demonstrates how racialized interactional experiences have been systematically excluded from foundational accounts of social order. The article concludes by proposing a framework of racialized intersubjectivity, reframing intelligibility as an empirical and political problem at the core of social theory rather than a taken-for-granted premise of interaction.

Author

• Lifu Chang, University at Albany, SUNY