Final Reflection

 

  "Reflexivity: the attitude of attending systematically to the context of knowledge construction"

 

    Reflexivity was two-fold in this project. First, attending systematically to the context of participants’ responses to a testimony to micro aggression aimed at demonstrating how people’s unique experiences shape their positionality and ultimately their perception of and response to issues of race. Second, understanding and addressing my own position, perspective, beliefs and values, the values of the human research instrument aimed at demonstrating how positionality and subjectivity, while deemed by some as a reliability problem, could offer a richer, more developed understanding of the complex phenomena of race and identity. 

 

    Throughout the portfolio, I have addressed the values and beliefs reflected by how I approached and interpreted interview questions. Because of my sociological background, I tend to view social phenomena in relation to the concept of power and power dynamics, be it the multidimensionality of identities, dominance versus subordinance in social relations, and privilege in all its guises, as I have demonstrated in how I interpreted people’s responses all in relation to identity politics and the power dynamics that comes with it. Different researchers might interpret the same interviews from different positions or perspectives. This could lead to the development of different, although equally valid, understandings of the particular situation under study, the hidden constructs behind the participants’ perception of race and racism. Specifically, I looked at the power constructs, whereas, for instance, philosophers might look at the constructs of morality and human nature that underlie people’s responses to micro aggression, and historians might approach the issue from the how historical development of racial relations affects individuals’ perception of race.

 

    Lastly, I’d like to address two significant preconceptions behind the methodology of my research. 

1. I chose this specific post because I was initially overwhelmed by the glut of generic and positive affirmations in the comment section. While I was deeply moved by her message too, I had my reservation and skepticism about the representability of those comments. I must confess that I firmly held the belief that the comments on the post might obfuscate the different voices that people with different backgrounds and experiences actually have, which stemmed from the vastly different conversations I’ve had with different people, some of whom were skeptics, some cynics, some outright racists, some cosmopolitans, and some liberals. I came in with this belief that there must be a spectrum of attitudes towards racial issues like microaggression, and was hoping to use my research to test my belief. 

2. I purposefully selected my interviewees who I believe could represent as many different races, genders, religious backgrounds, and sexual orientations as possible. I postulated that people with different social backgrounds and different social identities would be more likely to have different opinions on race. This further reflected my belief in social constructionism, that centers on the notion that meanings are developed in coordination with others rather than separately within each individual. I believed that social constructs, power indicators and power relations in particular, defined reality, and different social constructs that come with diverse identities and experiences would yield a more diverse set of opinions on race, which I think is social construct itself.

3. I designed my website in the format of a website due to two considerations. One specific what that Chronicle of a Summer dealt with reflexivity was to deliberate the arrangement of questions and interviews into one piece. As I asked myself which person I would like to present before the other and why I would do so, I could not come up with any justified answer because I figured all responses and emotions, regardless of whether they are expected or unexpected, orthodox or subversive, should not dictate whether I should give it priority or more attention . As long as I present my interviews in a linear order that I intentionally engineer, there always exists my positionality behind what I find valuable, unexpected, or interesting. Diving into the positionality would be one way to go, but since the aim of this ethnographic portfolio is to navigate the power of reflexivity, I wanted this experience of navigation to be engaging in that it could also stimulate reflexivity from the reader. A website creates a lot of latitude as to how one can navigate different parts of the portfolio, rather than confining my portfolio in a linear arrangement. I chose this format, therefore, in hope that it could allow the reader to reflect on what they find interesting and disruptive, through which they  could dive into intro-section of their own preconceptions, beliefs, world views, and values.

 

 

    I’d like to conclude this portfolio with one of my favorite quotes from novelist Marilynne Robinson. “The locus of the human mystery is perception of this world. From it proceeds every thought”. To reflect upon positionality and subjectivity, after all, is to cogitate on the very locus of our existence. 

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