Living in a Black and White world: The value of reflexivity in social equity research

Abstract

Though more than fifty years post segregation, the current political landscape in the U.S. suggests that many Americans are still living in a ‘Black and White’ world. Therefore, when two tourism scholars decided to take on the historically whitewashed tourism industry – it was not smooth sailing. This work uses the methodological approach of duoethnography to explore our reflexive journals studying and presenting on the Black Travel Movement. The narratives provide an examination of our experiences and link them to theoretical understandings of reflexivity and positionality. We unpack and discuss our personal feelings and experiences in relation to each other within a dialogue. Because there is a dearth of published duoethnographies in social science research in general, and within tourism studies in particular, we embarked on our own interpretation of duoethnography with the goal of highlighting the importance of reflexivity in social equity tourism research.  We conclude that there is much work to be done around engaging in social and racial equity, both within and without academia.