ABSTRACT
This chapter contends that in today's 'colorblind' society, people need an approach to in-depth interviewing that does not reduce 'race' and 'ethnicity' to formulaic categories, but approaches them as ways of relating to each other that vary not just by phenotype, but by the way each of us 'activates' race in their everyday conversations and lives. Cannon and colleagues criticized researchers who went about their subject recruitment in a colorblind manner, without taking into account the 'special' accommodations participants of color might appreciate, given such history of abuse and suspicion. Qualitative interviewing allows social scientists to keep their ears open for what is 'going on the ground' as opposed to reproducing the same survey questions year after year hoping for good longitudinal reliability/validity. White feminist researchers Andersen and DeVault agree that same-race pairing is ideal, but make a more nuanced argument in an examination of their own interviews with women of color.
