Communication Theory at a Time of Racial Reckoning

Daniel Kreiss

Communication Theory

(In)Equity

Communication Studies, Race

Decentering communication studies' historic reliance on white perspectives and epistemologies

This review articles examines three books that place race and ethnicity at the center of their disparate approaches. What is theoretically important about all three books is that they start from an emphasis on the analytical and empirical importance of those who stand outside of powerful institutions and dominant cultures, whether they are activists, movements, counterpublics, everyday smartphone and social media users, or generations of people with a shared history. Each of the books has a different analytical lens onto what brings and keeps these people together, and the relations they hold to others and across history.