How to be an ethnographer
By: Tess S. Skadegard Thorsen
Tags: Racism, Ethnography, Discrimination, Anthropology, Humor

How to be an ethnographer

In this satirical piece I explore the risky presumptions of ethnography as a research practice (it is of course entirely fictional, ironic, and intended for comedic purpose). Here are my 7 steps to becoming an ethnographer. Tess S. Skadegard Thorsen Nov 20, 2020·8 min read

Be white (or at least think like a white person).

White people basically invented ethnography; the writing about and study of (graphy) people (ethno). So if you are not white, how are you going to really channel that rich history of defining, describing, and becoming an expert on people you have absolutely no connection to whatsoever (other than curiosity)?

The easy answer is: be white. White people seem to be best at doing ethnography — at least judging by the amount of ethnographies that are written by them. If you can’t be white, try to imagine what it might be like and write from that perspective. Please embody that same whiteness when reading the remainder of this guide.

The ethnographers tools. Photo: Dariusz Sankowski, Unsplash.

2. Study and write about groups (anyone, really) who are exotic.

The more rural or hard to get to the better. Particular people may purposefully live out of reach — just reach them! When they see your irresistible face they will surely feed you, care for you, and make you one of them, so you can go on to tell the world about them (don’t worry about making them more vulnerable to future abuse — or about bringing diseases to them — the upside is that they will be closer to civilization). If they don’t welcome you with open arms don’t worry! It wasn’t a wasted trip: you can just write about how hostile, hard to get to, dangerous, or difficult they are, which might even make you more famous.

White people are ethnographically uninteresting (and neutral, right?) so try to find people with brown or black skin, preferably from ‘the global south’. Make sure to get portions of grant money to cover your extensive travels, but don’t pay people for their participation (do they even know the value of money anyway?). Your mere presence should make them feel honored, but if not bribery with small presents might work. Spend the rest of your grant money vacationing during weekends and holidays in nearby tourist-locations and isolated spots — since you need rest after the exhausting and tiring process of immersing yourself with the locals.

3. Write about the struggle. And let it change you forever.

Find people who are struggling (or at least people a white audience can easily imagine as struggling) — refugees, people who are starving, hard working laborers, sex workers, poor people, indigenous people — just make sure to find those who are most likely to be interpreted as vulnerable in some way. It makes for much more compelling work, because it pulls at your (white readership’s) heartstrings. As an added bonus this will bring legitimacy to your choice to study brown/black people, because you might be helping them by bringing attention to their plea (*wink wink*). What’s more, you can now write in very objective and neutral academic language and still achieve a sob-story worth turning into a Hollywood movie or ted talk down the line (if you are interested in multiple future revenue streams).

Once you have studied people who struggle you earn bragging rights. You can now show everyone that you have been deeply moved and changed — that you have gained perspective. There is an added bonus if your kids grew up while you were doing the work, since they will have a more nuanced perspective as well. Your eyes can glaze over at an office party, and rather than admitting that you were thinking about having forgotten to empty the dryer at home, you can let people know that you were just thinking of [insert struggling person from your fieldwork] and what they might be doing right now/whether they are still alive/ something wise they said once.

Have a few generic quotes and examples from your fieldwork at hand — that simultaneously expose ‘the simple life’ of your struggling subjects while glorifying their wisdom and positive attitude. Whip out these examples at any given time when you have nothing interesting to say — even if the examples have nothing to do with the ongoing conversation — it will make you look wise and thoughtful. Don’t worry about whether the quote fits the context: other white people will just feel inferior if they don’t get why you brought it up.

4. Go deep (but don’t go native!)

You want to deeply immerse yourself with the exotic others that you study. It is the only way to legitimately claim that you know them better than anyone else (including themselves).

So go as deep as you can — preferably live with them, follow them, and work with them for multiple years. Start dressing like them (and save some of the clothing, furniture, and other stuff as souvenirs for authenticity when you return). Go off-line or off-grid, or even pretend that you are considering not returning to your old life. Nobody needs to know that the reason you left in the first place was because your field work is really just escapism from your boring life. Instead make it seem like you are split about returning because you have become so deeply immersed, entrenched even, with the ‘other’ that you are practically one of them.

Make sure when you return to let everyone know how different you are from the old you and from everyone else. You are special — other, even — and so now you really understand what black and brown people must feel when surrounded by whiteness.

You have to go so deep people genuinely believe in the authority of your ethnography. But at the same time don’t go native — as it might blur your perfectly objective, critical, and neutral (white) perspective. As an objective researcher, you are, of course, able to understand your subjects from a more critically reflexive perspective than themselves — and you will use this perspective both for the good of them and for the good of white civilization (and science!). If you are worried about your work being interpreted as racist consider having brown or black kids with the brown or black people you observe (or just someone who looks like them). You can’t be racist towards someone you are related to, right?

5. Write thick descriptions

The best way to suspend judgement and maintain neutrality/objectivity in your ethnography is to write thick descriptions.

By emphasizing a careful and detailed description of the place, the people, and the events, your ethnography will seem detailed (like you spent ages observing and then longer ages documenting) and neutral (because you didn’t miss a thing, right?). Note the color of the walls, the clothing people wear, the smells, the sounds, the ways they speak, the ways they move — and then write about it in excruciating detail. This way no one can blame you for having been selective or having an agenda with your descriptions.

Use your senses as a cover for the classed and racial descriptions that might sound biased. Instead of talking about how you deeply dislike the poor and are erasing your guilt by studying them — just write about how the place smells like a specific inexpensive brand of perfume, a particular chemical cleaning agent or something else associated with cheapness and syntheticness (to the informed upper-class readership). This way you don’t have to write that it smells poor to your sensitive nostrils, instead you have neutrally described the smells, and readers can make their own (classed) assumptions.

Make allegories for the people you study. Are they like the architecture that surrounds them? Like the wildlife that lives nearby? The more you can blur the lines between the people you study and the context you are in the more successfully you can frame them as inherently other and different from you.

Keep a notebook around. Photo: Messala Ciulla, Pexels.

6. Create a social media presence for your work

Be sure to frequently share photos of your subjects. If you really want to seem like you are breaking down hierarchies you might even friend your subjects on FB to show that you are deeply connected and have a respectful, loving, and close connection all these years later (call them ‘someone I used to work with’ if you are uncomfortable with them being ‘subjects’).

Be sure that your photos are authentic. Never film or photograph your subjects when they do regular stuff like going to a doctor or checking their email. Instead, only document the stuff that is interesting and worthy of documentation (read: exotic). If they have a goat, photograph that. If they have cute brown or black kids, photograph them — preferably in some state of undress or dirty. We all know that you aren’t doing this for the thousands of heart-emoji and cute emojis from your white friends and colleagues, but it doesn’t hurt, amIright?

7. Visit prestigious universities, get tenure, and never look back or share the wealth

Give a lecture about how critical you are when thinking about power and positionality. You’ve read Spivak — you know that the other can’t speak — that is exactly why you tell everybody that you are super close to your interlocutors, and that you are doing this for them.

Visit prestigious universities and screen your ethnographic documentaries where you follow brown and black bodies (bodies, not people!) through the struggle. Then host a panel where you and other academics can discuss that struggle. If you bring on a person who has actually lived it, make sure that they are treated as a guest of honor, and that they only speak from their own experience, while you offer your expert analysis — this will make you look even more intellectual and important.

You may get questioned by critical students (often students of color, ugh) about your positionality. Just answer: “there is a really good body of literature from the 70’s and 80’s feminist theory on situated knowledge that I recommend if you want to learn more about position.” It’s an easy fix — now the students just have to think about their positionality and not bother you about yours.

If you want to be viewed as super progressive you can even give a few lectures about how your position as a white researcher (or ablebodied, upper-class — pick your fave) privileged you in terms of access and opportunity both as an ethnographer and academic. This way you can go right back to researching those exotic others with a clear conscience — you stated your position, you own your privilege, you are home free.

Now all that is left is earning (or getting, let’s be real) that tenure position. Just convince your university that you have unique ties to [insert struggling or remote community/place] and that you can ensure students have access to studying them/there under your guidance.

Voila! You are now a full-blown ethnographer! Hire some brown TA’s to legitimize your course. Hire a white crew or editors for your films/books (they probably won’t question your approach as much) and invite your brown/black subjects to join you on the red carpet /at the book launch — that way they won’t feel bad that you didn’t pay them for their participation in the films/books that built your career. Congratulations!