ABSTRACT
Dementia research is characterised by a noticeable focus away from issues of ‘race’, racism and racialised social inequalities with respect to its discourses around the experience of dementia within minority ethnic communities. Taking into account the specific silence around ‘race’, and conceptualising this as a form of whiteness, this chapter presents a number of critical reflections around how this whiteness of public health discourses and research agendas relating to dementia has important implications for knowledge production, social justice and social change. The discussion takes issue specifically with the particular conceptualisations of ‘ethnicity’ within the wider white public health discourses around dementia and presents a critique regarding how these white discourses work as a mechanism to shift responsibility and blame collectively to members of the disadvantaged minority ethnic communities. A strong emphasis is placed within this discussion on the need for a decolonisation of research agendas with respect to dementia research and adoption of anti-racist approaches to knowledge production. Challenging the current dominance of Western (and white) framings of the problem around minority ethnic people’s equitable access to dementia diagnosis, care and support is thus identified as a key priority for inclusive dementia research concerned with positive social change.
