The elephant in the room: racism in representations, relationships and rituals

Abstract

Racism touches many of the relationships created by the international development industry, but has been largely ignored by policy and academic studies. Like its historical precursors, it is in conversation with other forms of inequality based on class, gender, ethnicity and caste. Generalized representations of ‘racial’groups are pervasive and can be trivial in impact. But when combined with exclusionary social networks and rituals, and used to justify white-dominated power structures, the result can be systematic discrimination against people based on their racial identity. With examples from encounters between staff working in development in international agencies, networks, governments and national organizations in Latin America, Africa and Asia, we illustrate how racism is played out. We suggest that such observations emphasize the need to decentralize power to the South and that the subject deserves more thorough investigation.