What’s the Difference With “Difference”?: Equity, Communication, and the Politics of Difference

• In Event: The Interventional Possibilities of Difference: Thinking Through Communication, Difference, and Identity

Abstract

How can the word difference itself help us to re-think communication with equity central, with the politics of difference at its center, or, in other words, where a deviation from a norm is embraced as a positive part of the process of change-making? Does difference bring us to a place where racialized minorities are not just window dressing, the tokens that stave off allegations of racism? I briefly trace the genealogies of tolerance, multiculturalism, and diversity, before moving to difference in order to uncover the politics of difference. Linguistic change coincides with and can foment historical and political change. Interrogating the language around this potentially change-making word uncovers, in the words of Herman Gray (2005), a politics of difference unutterable without demands for equity.

Author

• Ralina Joseph, U of Washington