Critical racial literacy and public sociology: visibilizing race among local authorities in Ireland

Ireland is no stranger to racisms in their various forms. To the historical can be added the recent increased visibility of violent racist acts and an intensifying, broader climate of racism targeting those deemed as Other in Ireland. These contextual insights underscore the urgent need for public authorities to take the initiative and meaningfully engage in antiracist strategies. Following racial literacy theorists, we apply critical racial literacy as a conceptual tool to understand whether and how Irish local authorities understand, negotiate, and resist racial hierarchies. Drawing on sixty-nine in-depth interviews with the staff of seven local authorities across Ireland, our findings demonstrate that hegemonic discourses around equality, diversity and inclusion shape individual and institutional recognition of racism, thus underpinning race-evasive policy and practice. Bringing the concept of critical racial literacy into the field of public sociology, we argue for the development of a counterhegemonic racial literacy within local authorities as institutions, and staff therein, that moves beyond the superficial to recognise racism as systemic, understand racialisation as processual, catalyse reflexivity vis-à-vis positionality, and motivate a change to antiracist praxis.