Slipping Through the Front Door: Relevant Social Scientific Evaluation in the People of Color Century

Abstract

This is an essay about the racialized conventional wisdoms and the academic traditions that impede the ability of social scientists to adequately explain and evaluate the colorization of the life worlds around them, particularly in terms of explanations involving power, privilege, and empowerment. I conclude that it is impossible to discuss adequately the more technical issues of technique and measurement, until we grasp the epistemological and biographical problematics of social sciences and their uses. Traditional frameworks, including traditional conceptions of race, hinder our ability to evaluate culturally and socially different worlds and realities, in this case, those created and transformed by people of color. It is especially important to find alternatives in a society and globe that are becoming increasingly colorized in terms of demographics, power and authority.

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