Look, I KNOW that being a white woman who “looks like a librarian” has helped me get access to, and ask pointed questions in, places like law enforcement agencies that are impossible for others to breach for the purposes of fieldwork and records-based research. (1/?) https://twitter.com/ChicanaAnthropo/status/1331689488695881732

I also suspect that my unusual (male-reading??) has also helped me get entrée into these settings, which are often incredibly patriarchal, paramilitary, male-dominated, and misogynistic. When I get an email reply to “Dear Mr. Becker,” it usually means I’m in there like swimwear.

I think about that privilege and positionality in regard to my research A LOT—how much is still be hidden from me, a woman; how I may not see/ask about what others might; just the fact that I feel safe doing research where a person of color definitely (understandably) wouldn’t.

I also think about the responsibility that puts on me—as a researcher with privilege, and privileged access—to STAY aware of my positionality. If someone alerts me to a blind spot, that deserves a THANK YOU, not a nastygram to that person’s boss*

*NB: very VERY few things in this world merit a nastygram to someone’s boss.

Fellow white women doing ethnographic research: Do better. Acknowledge—and then leverage—privilege. Do not presume your research informants are are your pals and that you can appropriate their culture or wear their styles or suddenly get away with using words you shouldn’t. END