Tanisha Spratt on Self-Identity as Method: Exploring Light-Skin Privilege

This seminar is a collaboration between the Black Health and the Humanities Network and the Measurement Lab, part of a series of research events exploring issues at the intersection of race, healthcare, and research culture. BHH Network member Dr Tanisha Spratt will reflect on colourism and ‘light-skin privilege’ in relation to her racialised identity and positionality as a researcher.

Light-skin privilege is a term that is often used to describe the relative advantages that racially minoritized people who are socially recognised as “light-skinned” receive when navigating predominantly white spaces compared to their peers with darker skin. However, the ways in which “light skin” is perceived, measured, and contested is often dependent on local contexts and national histories. This, in turn, can pose methodological challenges for racially and/ or ethnically minoritized researchers who might be positioned as either “insiders” or “outsiders” by participants depending on local recognitions, articulations, and/ or constructions of racial belonging. In this seminar I will discuss these points in relation to a recent study I conducted exploring the relationship between racism-induced stress and poor health outcomes amongst Black British women who self-identify as light-, medium-, or dark-skinned. In doing so, I will discuss the advantages and disadvantages of insider/ outsider status, the importance of reflexivity in communicating self-identity, and the epistemic advantages of direct researcher engagement.

Speaker Bio:

Tanisha Spratt is a Senior Lecturer in Racism and Health in the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, King’s College London. Building on her sociology background and working across literary and cultural studies, Tanisha’s research centres on racial inequalities in UK and US health outcomes. Specifically, her research focuses on the role of neoliberalism in promoting and sustaining understandings of personal responsibility, deservedness, and grievability when it comes to illness, death and dying.

The presentation will be followed by a facilitated discussion chaired by Dr Arya Thampuran and Dr Coreen McGuire.

Zoom details for online attendees will be circulated 24 hours before the start of the event.