Ethnography can serve to critique race-making rather than to represent a culture.

Evidence

Importantly, my approach to ethnography is not about representing ‘a culture’, but about using ethnographic methods to critique the UK’s border regime and its central role in processes of race-making (see De Genova, 2005). This critique of the nation-state project can be nourished by ‘ethnographic techniques’ that involve listening to and learning from those most violated by the forces of racism and nationalism. In this case, ethnographic methods mean paying attention to the stubborn persistence of ‘cosmopolitan hope’ among those not only excluded but quite literally expelled from the national polity (Gilroy, 2018, p. 19). — Luke de Noronha, The conviviality of the overpoliced,…, 44

Categorization

• DEFINE: Offers a distinct epistemology of ethnography: method as exposing the state’s race-making role, not documenting cultural difference.
• XREF: Echoes the methodological stance of other works on the UK border regime and deportation such as Bridget Anderson and Nicholas De Genova’s scholarship. — connects to: Modern racism legitimizes itself through cultural difference rather than biological hierarchy.; Races are produced by racism, not by biology — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 76; Culture means suspending objectification, yet criticism re-objectifies what it studies (+1 more)
• corroborated: 4 independent passages support this claim — Luke de Noronha, The conviviality of the overpoliced,…, 44

Broader Connections

• Modern racism legitimizes itself through cultural difference rather than biological hierarchy. #complicates (0.80)
• Races are produced by racism, not by biology #corroborates (0.80) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 76
• Culture operates as signifying practice rather than a fixed way of life #corroborates (0.80) — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2, 399
• Culture means suspending objectification, yet criticism re-objectifies what it studies #expands (0.75)