Social issues have worked to stimulate communication scholarship since the inception of the discipline (Orbe & Allen, 2008). From the start, the focus of the Journal of Applied Communication Research (JACR) has been to feature communication research that examines social issues in situ (Hickson, 1973). Over the years, JACR has championed scholarship that – through productive theoretical frameworks – provides practical guidelines to specific communication-based problems (Eadie, 1990). This 2022 special issue follows this tradition. Specifically, it is designed to present an academic space that highlights applied communication research that centralizes race – and through intersectionality, other salient aspects of identity – in meaningfully insightful ways. As such, it features engaged research that centralizes race as both a theoretical anchor and powerful point of praxis. ‘Race matters,’ as an ideological concept, was first introduced by West (1993). The insightful duality of the phrase emphasizes the saliency of race (race as noun, matters as verb) as well as the breadth of topical diversity related to race (race as adjective, matters as plural noun). Given this, ‘race matters’ serves as an appropriate marker for a special issue designed to engage the social construction of race, especially as the saliency and far-reaching effects of racism continue to manifest across the U.S. and global communities. The communication discipline has not escaped the effects of white supremacy and racism. While critiques from scholars of color have been documented over the years (e.g. Daniel, 1995), recent discourse confronting the field of communication for its lack of representation of scholars and scholarship from people of color has reached new heights. It was prompted, in part, by an analysis that found that scholars of color continue to be severely underrepresented in publication rates, citation frequency, and editorial roles throughout the field of communication (Chakravartty et al., 2018). This study – highlighted through the hashtag #CommunicationSoWhite – sparked unprecedented conversations regarding issues of diversity, inclusion, equity, and access on multiple levels throughout the communication discipline. At the core of this discourse is a compelling argument that ‘publication and citation practices reproduce institutional racism’ (Chakravartty et al., p. 257), the result of which is knowledge production that reinforces whiteness as the norm, and consequently, severely limits our ability to fully understand the salient role that race plays in communication processes. Recent

Utilizing phenomenological creative nonfiction, this study explores the communicative experiences of an African American female military pilot on the flight deck and within the civil, commercial aviation industry. Presented in narrative form, the findings explore a phenomenological approach to critical-cultural narratology in qualitative research methodologies in terms of descriptive depth, theoretical rigor, and heuristic value. The narrative offered here generates a record of experiences for continued examination and future research made accessible to expert and non-expert audiences alike.

In this introduction to the special issue the authors craft a critical autoethnography to chronicle their relationship and/to critical autoethnography. They use Michelle Obama’s book and documentary Becoming to reflect on how the critical reflexivity inherent in autoethnographic work can be used to document relationships, moments of revelation, and self-empowerment. They then preview four articles that map experiences of becoming linked to racialized identity, disability, and family.

In this article, I utilize phenomenologically-based creative nonfiction to present a case study of what micro-protest looks like for an African American faculty member working in a predominantly white university. Drawing from observations and informal information-gathering techniques over a 20+ year period, I present a layered account to share snippets from a larger narrative that vividly capture the nuanced ways co-cultural group members navigate predominantly white organizational spaces in the margins. Ultimately, I introduce the various ways micro-protest—as a new conceptualization of co-cultural practice—is enacted to achieve the preferred outcome of separation. I conclude with a brief discussion of how this scholarly endeavor contributes to co-cultural research and theorizing.

Utilizing phenomenological creative nonfiction, this study explores the communicative experiences of an African American female military pilot on the flight deck and within the civil, commercial aviation industry. Presented in narrative form, the findings explore a phenomenological approach to critical-cultural narratology in qualitative research methodologies in terms of descriptive depth, theoretical rigor, and heuristic value. The narrative offered here generates a record of experiences for continued examination and future research made accessible to expert and non-expert audiences alike.

In this introduction to the special issue the authors craft a critical autoethnography to chronicle their relationship and/to critical autoethnography. They use Michelle Obama’s book and documentary Becoming to reflect on how the critical reflexivity inherent in autoethnographic work can be used to document relationships, moments of revelation, and self-empowerment. They then preview four articles that map experiences of becoming linked to racialized identity, disability, and family.

Communication scholars generally, and intercultural communication scholars more specifically, have been slow to examine socioeconomic status as a salient cultural issue. Growing up in subsidized low-income housing (i.e., the projects), the author has become increasingly aware of how class is inextricably linked to communication. He documents how his sense of self when it comes to class has not necessarily been transformed despite experiencing considerable shifts in economic earnings. Instead, it has resulted in a mindfulness of socioeconomic status that presents a constant psychological and communicative challenge. This chapter utilizes a layered account to share autoethnographic narratives (and "confessions") designed to enhance greater understanding of the saliency of social class in the US.

In the midst of heightened racial tensions across the United States, this study documents the prevalence of racial microaggressions as reported by 17 attorneys of colour (African American, Asian American, and Latinx) from across different national regions. Qualitative data provides insight into to how these race-based messages are situated within assumptions of inferiority, similarity, and criminality. Through a co-cultural theoretical lens, the study also highlights the diverse, nuanced, and conscious ways in which attorneys responded to such problematic interactions – including the strategic response of “doing nothing.” In doing so, the findings reported here extend existing research on microaggressions generally and contributes to the growing literature on how people of colour negotiate the prevalence of racial microaggressions in different professional contexts.

Shonda Rhimes is one of the most powerful players in contemporary American network television. Beginning with her break-out hit series Grey’s Anatomy , she has successfully debuted Private Practice , Scandal , How to Get Away with Murder , The Catch , For The People , and Station 19. Rhimes’s work is attentive to identity politics, “post-” identity politics, power, and representation, addressing innumerable societal issues. Rhimes intentionally addresses these issues with diverse characters and story lines that center, for example, on interracial friendships and relationships, LGBTIQ relationships and parenting, the impact of disability on familial and work dynamics, and complex representations of womanhood. This volume serves as a means to theorize Rhimes’s contributions and influence by inspiring provocative conversations about television as a deeply politicized institution and exploring how Rhimes fits into the implications of twenty-first century television.

Over the last two decades, the Communication discipline has become a leader in research that explains, defines, operationalizes, and theorizes bullying. Similar to studies of harassment, discrimination, and abuse, the bullying literature has been largely motivated by a desire to describe this interactional "bad behavior" so that it ostensibly may be eradicated. Less clear, however, are what behaviors should fill the void when bullying behavior declines and the processes by which ostensibly "good behavior" might most effectively be inspired and created. In this chapter, we applied Dominant Group Theory as a lens to understand the ways in which dominant group members can disrupt and impede workplace bullying.

The study investigates the ways in which Black female pilots experience and manage their elite status as airline transport pilots (ATPs) and as co-cultural group members. Accordingly, Orbe's (1998b) co-cultural theory is used as a frame to understand how women of color negotiate workplaces where White male cultural norms are omnipresent. Using a phenomenological approach, the communicative lived experiences of two Black female ATPs are analyzed to reveal specific co-cultural communication practices enacted. The study is offered here as a testament to engaged research-that which advances theory (i.e., extending co-cultural theorizing in a new setting) and provides pragmatic insight into important contemporary issues (i.e., increased diversity in a historically White male profession).

Through this theoretical essay, we conceptualize what constitutes dominant group theory. We review existing literature on two essential aspects of dominant group theory: (1) power, privilege, and communication, and (2) co-cultural theory. Drawing from data from two recent studies, we then use the conceptual framework of co-cultural theory to generate an extension that explores the communicative strategies of majority group members. More particularly, we describe five premises, six factors of dominant group communication, nine communication orientations, and twenty-one specific dominant group strategies, all of which represent the key building blocks of dominant group theorizing. Finally, we conclude by offering strengths, limitations, and heuristic implications of this new line of theorizing.