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Strategies for antiracist representation: ethnic tourism guides in Chicago

Strategies for antiracist representation: ethnic tourism guides in Chicago Researchers often frame tour guides in narrow and agency-revoking ways and theorize an ethnic tourism industry in which marginalized racial/ethnic communities are represented as the Other. In this research, I argue that tour guides in Chicago's urban ethnic neighborhoods resist some of the prevailing racialized constructions of their communities by employing strategies of antiracist representation. As ‘representational strategists’, tour guides use ethnic tourism to develop strategies that put forward alternative – even antiracist – representations of marginalized communities. Through a Chicago tourism project, guides construct representations of their communities that (1) invert the relationship of the host community and visitors by constructing the tourists as the Other; (2) articulate a social history of oppression and resistance; (3) expose the community's social problems such as gentrification, and identify their structural causes; and (4) connect the shared experiences between communities of color. These representational strategies defy the normalized practices of ethnic tourism, as well as the mechanisms of racism, and can be important tools in resisting ideological constructions that perpetuate inequality. They attest to the ways marginalized groups can use representation as an important tool in struggles to define themselves, resist silencing and invisibilization, and challenge some of the assumptions and practices that reproduce their marginalization. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Journal of Tourism and Cultural Change Taylor & Francis

Strategies for antiracist representation: ethnic tourism guides in Chicago

Journal of Tourism and Cultural Change , Volume 9 (2): 15 – Jun 1, 2011
15 pages

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References (44)

Publisher
Taylor & Francis
Copyright
Copyright Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
ISSN
1747-7654
eISSN
1476-6825
DOI
10.1080/14766825.2010.548560
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Researchers often frame tour guides in narrow and agency-revoking ways and theorize an ethnic tourism industry in which marginalized racial/ethnic communities are represented as the Other. In this research, I argue that tour guides in Chicago's urban ethnic neighborhoods resist some of the prevailing racialized constructions of their communities by employing strategies of antiracist representation. As ‘representational strategists’, tour guides use ethnic tourism to develop strategies that put forward alternative – even antiracist – representations of marginalized communities. Through a Chicago tourism project, guides construct representations of their communities that (1) invert the relationship of the host community and visitors by constructing the tourists as the Other; (2) articulate a social history of oppression and resistance; (3) expose the community's social problems such as gentrification, and identify their structural causes; and (4) connect the shared experiences between communities of color. These representational strategies defy the normalized practices of ethnic tourism, as well as the mechanisms of racism, and can be important tools in resisting ideological constructions that perpetuate inequality. They attest to the ways marginalized groups can use representation as an important tool in struggles to define themselves, resist silencing and invisibilization, and challenge some of the assumptions and practices that reproduce their marginalization.

Journal

Journal of Tourism and Cultural ChangeTaylor & Francis

Published: Jun 1, 2011

Keywords: racial representations; ethnic tourism; tour guides; gentrification; antiracism

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