The Racialization - Deracialization Concept in Political Science: Concepts, Controversies, and Critiques

Abstract

Panel Proposed by: Joseph McCormick (Penn State York) and David C. Wilson (University of Delaware)

We propose a panel that addresses one of the most controversial, but important, concepts in the racial politics literature: framing. Policies, issues, and candidates are framed in many ways, and of the most prevalent and effects frames is that of race. Racial framing centers around two essential polar opposites, racialized and deracialized. Many Black political scientists (e.g., McCormick, Jones, Orey, Gillespie) have actually focused on the “deracialized” side of the continuum, constructing arguments about the behavioral and institutional forms of politics that avoid race; while many white political scientists (e.g., Mendelberg, Tesler and Sears, Kinder and Sanders) have focused on the “racialized” side, proclaiming that racial thinking is easily activated because of deeply held predispositions about race. Unfortunately, the two ends of the continuum rarely meet in an effort to understand the array of causes and consequences of racialized-deracialized politics.