The Imperative of Dissecting Anti-Black and Anti-Indigenous Meritocracy in Communication Studies and Beyond

Abstract

In this essay, we argue that we have an imperative to dissect how global anti-Blackness and anti-Indigeneity unfold in academic institutions and how these ideologies emerge in local, precise phenomena, such as the recent National Communication Association's Distinguished Scholars (DS) controversy. We provide descriptions of anti-Blackness and anti-Indigeneity ideologies and explain how meritocracy in academic institutions and the DS controversy are entrenched in both. The study of the ideologies together—in the same way that we, a Mexican man and a Black man, converge as researchers from distinct positionalities—is important because both intersect from similar roots, such as White settlerism, and foment solidarity.