Skip to main content

Research Repository

Advanced Search

Authenticity and recognition: Theorising antiracist becomings and allyship in the time of COVID-19 and Black Lives Matter

Mullard, Jordan. C. R.

Authenticity and recognition: Theorising antiracist becomings and allyship in the time of COVID-19 and Black Lives Matter Thumbnail


Authors



Abstract

The confluence of the COVID-19 pandemic, the murder of George Floyd in America and a global Black Lives Matter response triggered anew the global struggle for racial justice. Using cyber, remote, and in-person ethnographic methods, this paper explores racial identity, allyship and processes of becoming during the spring and summer of 2020. Building on theories of ‘the struggle for recognition’, I situate becoming within the interplay of what I call epistemic, affective and reciprocal authenticity. Within this project, I address identity, redistribution and the reconfiguration of conceptual distinctions between justice and dignity. The analysis reflects a time of racial tension in a provincial Northeastern town in England, UK – a predominantly white and marginalised location. I amplify the personal testimonies, conversations and written words of three quite different activists to highlight the nuanced refractions of lived experience and a developing antiracism. These collaborators reveal how their antiracist becomings, in the light of 2020 events, incorporate affective, epistemic and reciprocal authenticities that bring to the fore new potentialities for racial justice, white allyship and recognition.

Citation

Mullard, J. C. R. (2024). Authenticity and recognition: Theorising antiracist becomings and allyship in the time of COVID-19 and Black Lives Matter. Anthropological Theory, 24(2), 111-135. https://doi.org/10.1177/14634996231193608

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Aug 24, 2023
Online Publication Date Sep 3, 2023
Publication Date 2024-06
Deposit Date Jul 28, 2021
Publicly Available Date Sep 20, 2023
Journal Anthropological Theory
Print ISSN 1463-4996
Electronic ISSN 1741-2641
Publisher SAGE Publications
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 24
Issue 2
Pages 111-135
DOI https://doi.org/10.1177/14634996231193608
Keywords becomings, racial consciousness, Black Lives Matter, identity, social movements, allyship, recognition, COVID-19, Authenticity
Public URL https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1238716

Files


Published Journal Article (Advanced Online Version) (315 Kb)
PDF

Licence
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Publisher Licence URL
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Copyright Statement
© The Author(s) 2023. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).





You might also like



Downloadable Citations