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Read our current thinking, below, in response to the freedom of speech and citational justice discussions.
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Citational Justice
Citation is an important currency in academia. We often treat its impacts lightly, composing short bibliographies of conventional literature. This practice prevents those in less mainstream venues from being heard. It deprives authors and readers of diversity of thought and experience. Reference lists may include only the big names and specific literature we know from our own specialized areas.
There is much more that can inform MCA papers. We encourage authors to expand their searches for relevant literature, looking across disciplines and geographies. We believe this is an important aspect of inclusion, and a practical, actionable way to practice what we preach. We can use the MCA Editorial Board to help authors locate a wider range of materials if needed, including less dominant voices. We can bring in perspectives and empirical studies to help us think more expansively.
Here is a short Open Access article on Citational Justice:
Citational Justice and the Politics of Knowledge Production
See also Cite Black Women
Please contact the editor of your paper if you have questions or need help with your search for more expansive literature.
Start by creating your account.
Freedom of Speech & Cultural Praxis
Freedom of speech as an abstract ideal does not exist. Freedom of speech can only occur within concrete power systems and social relations. The question is, “Whose freedom, and freedom for what?” Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote: “I had hoped that the white moderate would understand that law and order exist for the purpose of establishing justice and that when they fail in this purpose they become the dangerously structured dams that block the flow of social progress.” Today, freedom of speech, formulated in the abstract, is precisely such a “dangerously structured dam that blocks the flow of social progress.” Instead of following an empty mantra, we must interrogate and radicalize this principle by situating it within the concreteness of sociopolitical realities and the struggle for establishing justice. The pretext of unrestricted freedom of speech is, de facto, a call to continue practices of unrestricted freedom for elites to espouse positions free from consequence or criticism in a program of preserving elites’ privilege and power.
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