“We are not named”: Black women and the politics of citation in anthropology

Abstract

Black women anthropologists are not cited within the discipline at a rate consistent with our scholarly production and visibility in the field. Despite our training, practice, and prolific writing, authors who publish in top-tier anthropology journals rarely cite Black women. This citational absence reveals a paradox: although Black women play key roles in the discipline as leaders and service providers, our intellectual contributions are undervalued. We are symbolically visible yet academically eclipsed. This article examines the epistemological erasure of Black women's contributions to anthropology in the United States. Through a pilot study, we measure Black women's citation rates in some of the highest ranked anthropology journals (according to impact factor). Moving away from a one-dimensional gender analysis toward a two-dimensional, intersectional analysis that analyzes race and gender, we find that Black women are underrepresented in citations in top-tier anthropology journals relative to their absolute representation in the field. This reveals a significant and disturbing trend: Black women anthropologists are rarely cited in top-tier anthropology journals, and in the rare instances they are cited, they are cited by other Black anthropologists. There is a need for an intersectional analysis of the politics of power and inequality in anthropology, one that not only pays attention to gender discrimination but also racial discrimination.