I got this list in my inbox this morning, and it made me want to throw up. it’s a list of “particularly good and compelling examples of creative, parsimonious scholarship.” Notice anything missing? Probably not, if you aren’t aware of these names and if you didn’t spend 45 googling each person’s name to look for a picture. I’ll save you the trouble: not one black sociologist on this list. Not one.
When you are in the midst of dissertating, trying to round this last bend, I cannot express how disheartening a list like this is. The work of black sociologists clearly is not considered “good” or “compelling” or “parsimonious.”
A part of me wants to feel angry, because I know there are so many works by black sociologists that could have made the list (and this is just what I can think of off the top of my head on little sleep). But a bigger part of me, the part that doubts and gets anxiety about my work, just wants to go back to bed.
Doctor Mama Esquire 