Articulating Identity: Refining Postcolonial and Whiteness Perspectives on Race within Communication Studies

This paper juxtaposes postcolonial and whiteness scholarship to identify gaps and clarify influences on critical race scholarship within communication studies. This paper considers the multiplicity of each perspective and identifies the focus on race and the body as communicative texts as a linkage that unites the three perspectives. How each perspective informs a communicative understanding of race is explored through the constructs of Cartesian dualism, performance, and the gaze. The paper concludes with suggestions for future directions for interrogating race within the communication discipline, including a consideration of how white privilege is extended to and assumed by individuals who are not white.