Bian Junru
School of Political Studies, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario Canada.
J Int Humanit Action. 2022;7(1):3. doi: 10.1186/s41018-021-00112-9. Epub 2022 Jan 7.
This paper aims to explore the ways which expertise is covertly racialized in the contemporary humanitarian aid sector. While there are considerable discussions on the expat-local divide among aid professionals, such dichotomization is still inherently nationality-based, which may be an over-simplified explanation of the group dimensions within aid organizations. This study seeks to uncover that professional categorizations of "expatriate" and "local" are not race-neutral and, instead, colorblind. Organizations within the contemporary humanitarian aid apparatus have come to appeal to what Michael Omi and Howard Winant would characterize as a new racial discourse-one that does not require explicit references to race in order to be perpetuated, as racial subordination has been reconfigured to rely on implicit references to race woven within the everyday social fabrics of the humanitarian profession. The research suggests that embedded under the contemporary professional structure of the liberal humanitarian space is a covert power hierarchy fueled by perceptions of expertise and competency along racial lines-particularly around one's whiteness.
本文旨在探讨在当代人道主义援助领域，专业技能被隐性种族化的方式。虽然援助专业人员之间关于外派人员与本地人员差异的讨论颇多，但这种二分法本质上仍是基于国籍的，这可能是对援助组织内部群体维度的过度简化解释。本研究试图揭示，“外派人员”和“本地人员”的专业分类并非种族中立，而是无视肤色的。当代人道主义援助机构中的组织开始诉诸迈克尔·奥米和霍华德·温纳特所描述的一种新的种族话语——一种无需明确提及种族就能延续的话语，因为种族从属关系已被重新构建，依赖于编织在人道主义职业日常社会结构中的对种族的隐性提及。研究表明，在自由人道主义空间的当代专业结构之下，潜藏着一种由基于种族的专业技能和能力认知（尤其是围绕白人身份）所驱动的隐性权力等级制度。
