Editorial: Understanding ‘Race’ in/and public relations: Where do we start and where should we go?

Abstract

Our starting point for a broader discussion on ‘race’1 in=and public relations (PR) is that, despite its virtual invisibility in the scholarly literature, race is firmly embedded in the context and practice of PR. Although scholars are slowly beginning to engage with race (e.g., Edwards, 2010b; Pompper, 2005; 2010; Waymer, 2010), PR scholarship has not yet paid sufficient attention to the ‘raced’ nature of the field. The dominant, functional perspectives of PR concentrate primarily on organizational goals, apparently oblivious to the impact that such goals have in relation to issues of race. On the other hand, critical approaches look at PR as a social and cultural phenomenon but these too, by and large, bypass race as an inherent part of the social and cultural domain.