Racial Justice Intervention Research: Reflections, Challenges, and the Road Ahead

Abstract

In this closing commentary, we consider the contents of this special issue in full and contemplate the lessons learned in the process of its composition. Ultimately, the goal of racial justice intervention research is to meaningfully and tangibly reduce real-world discrimination and inequity. We offer guidance to researchers in three thematic domains that we hope will be in service of these efforts. In the first section, the second and the third authors reflect on the editorial process—and in particular, note an interplay between reviewers’ uneasiness with the “messiness” of applied work and authors’ tendency to, at times, overpromise about their work's advancement through the Translational Research Framework (TRF). In the second section, we examine the value of the TRF itself, focusing on its utility for formally structuring the development of an intervention, as well as for effectively addressing the challenges that arise when transitioning from highly controlled experimental contexts to unpredictable real-world domains. In the final section, we review the feedback we received from our authors themselves, which highlighted the necessities of interdisciplinary collaboration, building relationships with stakeholders, and flexibility in the face of uncertainty.