Race Talk in Institutional Settings : A Language and Social Interaction Perspective

Language and social interaction scholars have increasingly explored the consequentiality of language use for the production and reproduction of race, racialization, and racism. This timely book proposes a race talk framework that enables researchers to explore how people treat race as an ongoing issue through language use in institutional settings. The chapters introduce key concepts, debates, and illustrative race talk studies using Ethnomethodology, Conversation Analysis, Membership Categorization Analysis, Discursive Psychology, Identity-Implicative Discourse Analysis, and Critical Discourse Approaches. They highlight the benefits, challenges, and epistemic politics involved in race talk research. By synthesizing disconnected literature, this book charts an emerging subfield of LSI race talk research, methodological tensions, and proposes future directions for race talk research and inclusive community building.

“Shrikant and Williamson offer six compelling methods to examine how race (and racism) is not merely embedded in institutions, but is woven into the very fabric of everyday organizational discourse. Essential reading for researchers seeking robust qualitative tools to study the constitution of race in daily life.” — Trudy Milburn, Southern Connecticut State University

“Drawing on rich empirical materials, this accessible book demonstrates the distinctive affordances of a range of analytic approaches that focus on the details of naturally occurring language use in social interaction.” — Kevin A. Whitehead, University of California, Santa Barbara