Thursday, November 2, 12noon, Kirwan Institute, Conference Room 101, 33 W. 11th Ave.

Our Kirwan Institute fall virtual forum series continues on November 2 with Darwin Baluran, a Postdoctoral Scholar at The Ohio State University, on the topic “The Relational Racialization of Docility and Danger: How Cues of Asian-ness are Read and Interpreted in Police-Citizen Encounters.”

“Research suggests that cues of racial typicality are central to the logic of racism. But how are such cues read and interpreted in social interactions, especially police-civilian encounters? And what do they reveal about racial meaning making processes? This article uncovers overlooked dimensions of race-making in the criminal legal system by unpacking the racial dynamics between Asian-descent people and the police.”

“While not typically conceived as targets, racial typicality differences between Asian-origin people may shape their police encounters. Analyzing in-depth interviews with 63 Asian-descent adults from across the United States, I theorize how race operates like a language, whereby cues of Asian-ness are read and interpreted to situate individuals along a spectrum of docility and danger.”

“I argue that police-civilian interactions constitute micro-level racial projects whereby social resources are distributed according to racial status. Notably, I elaborate how intersecting dynamics of class, gender, and anti-Blackness undergird the relational racialization of Asian-ness.”

“By focusing on overlooked Asian-origin peoples, this study forges a more nuanced and expansive theoretical conception of policing and race making in the American criminal legal system. And it contributes to a growing sociological literature that interrogates notions of racial groupness and their implications for the study of inequality.”

This forum, co-sponsored by the OSU RAISE [Race, Inclusion and Social Equity] Initiative and The John Glenn College of Public Affairs, is free and open to the public. Please join us either in person or virtually, on Thursday, November 2.

This event is in conjunction with the Kirwan Fall Forum Series.

RSVP for this event [if you plan to attend virtually] by using this link.

RSVP for this event [if you plan to attend in-person] by using this link.

Hosted by Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity at The Ohio State University.