I found the idea of citational segregation really interesting. I’ll be honest- I think I’ve heard this term before, but I had never really looked into it or gotten the chance to learn about it. I suppose that is a good example of systematic educational oppression, and also a good example of my laziness. Anyway, citational segregation has to do with who sources and cites information from who. There are clear “disparities” between non-white and white authors in terms of citations, showing that people tend to cite information more from groups to which they belong (Chakravartty et. al).
This really made me think about who I’ve been citing, and if I’m playing into citational segregation at all. Basically, I don’t ever look at who I’m citing unless I need to check their credentials for some reason. Most of the time the validity of an article or journal can be determined by the publication. However, a lot of the time we as students are exposed more to white authors than authors of color due to what is more likely to be published. Racism within the educational system has more of an impact than most people think because it flies under the radar.
Paula Chakravartty, Rachel Kuo, Victoria Grubbs, Charlton McIlwain, #CommunicationSoWhite, Journal of Communication, Volume 68, Issue 2, April 2018, Pages 254–266, https://doi.org/10.1093/joc/jqy003
Hi Alex, this is the article that I also chose to write about. I agree with you on the fact that this is a concept that I have not thought much about before reading this piece. I also think that a lot of times when I personally am citing something I typically am only thinking about the content that I am citing rather than who the author may be - which I now realize how that could be detrimental. I think there is a sense of privilege that comes along with being able to access or cite information without knowing who it is coming from, which is a privilege I clearly obtain. I think you are absolutely right in that racism in academia is something that occurs much more frequently than most people even are aware of.
ReplyDelete