Sociology Lunchtime Seminar: Non-White Meta-Categories in the US and UK

Speaker: Mari Sanchez, Doctoral Student in Sociology, Harvard University
Chair: Dr Ali Meghji, Associate Professor in Social Inequalities, University of Cambridge
Abstract:
Mari Sanchez’s research offers a comparative-relational study of what she calls “non-white meta-categories” - umbrella categories that encapsulate or refer collectively to populations considered not white - in the US and UK. In the US, non-white meta-categories include “people of color” (POC), “Black, Indigenous, and People of Color” (BIPOC) and “minority”; in the UK, these include “Politically Black” and variations of “minority ethnic” such as “Black and Minority Ethnic” (BME) or “Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic” (BAME).
While racial justice and State actors have used non-white meta-categories in both countries since the 1960s, the categories have increasingly become unsettled by progressive and conservative actors leading up to 2020. In this talk, she examines these changes by focusing on civil society thought leaders in each country, including activists, public intellectuals, social media influencers, and other public figures, who are actively creating, transforming, and debating meanings about the categories. She argues that non-white meta-categories shape assumptions about the commonalities and differences of marginalized communities, illuminate certain racial inequalities while obscuring others, and inform pathways to achieve racial justice.
Mari Sanchez is a Doctoral Student in Sociology at Harvard University. Her research interests lie at the intersection of race/ethnicity and cultural sociology, focusing on questions of ethnoracial boundaries, classification, and knowledge production.