Addressing racism and Islamophobia under the rules of colorblindness: When social movements engage in category work to reform the meanings of regulatory categories

Abstract

Research at the intersection of social movements and categories has stressed how movements initiate and transform categories that influence the emergence, downfall, and restructuring of markets and industries. Yet, this literature tends to underestimate how social movement organizations are under pressure to align with powerful regulatory categories. This pressure is emplaced, depending on ideology and laws, and can be avoided by adopting reformist strategies and engaging in category work in free spaces. I discuss how Rainbow, a nonprofit organization, while seemingly aligned with the state-imposed categories of “underprivileged neighborhoods” and “diversity,” sought in practice to reform the meanings of these categories to address racism and islamophobia. Through ethnography, interviews, and textual analysis, I demonstrate how social movements facing pressure to comply with regulatory categories can engage in category reform, challenging the substance of these categories in free spaces and altering their meanings, while buffering oppositions through reformist strategies.