Community and Urban Sociology

Kiara Wyndham-Douds, an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Washington University in St. Louis, was the winner of the 2022 Graduate Student Paper Award. Kiara’s innovative research agenda examines mechanisms that create and sustain racial inequality in contemporary American society. Their current research focuses on the intertwined nature of race and space to investigate the spatial production of racial inequality in suburbs. We reached out to ask them to discuss their research, and we’re including their responses below. Thanks to Kiara for participating in our interview series!

What were the main findings of your paper?

My paper – “The Diversity Contract: Constructing Racial Harmony in a Diverse American Suburb” – examines the dominant racial ideology in a highly racially diverse and affluent suburb of Houston, Texas, called Fort Bend. I conducted 109 in-depth interviews with residents and community leaders and found that, rather than adhering to colorblindness, the dominant racial ideology identified in other settings, residents adhered to what I call the diversity contract, a local racial ideology. Key elements of the diversity contract include the belief that the community is racially harmonious and has no racial inequality. Residents also contend that the community is racially exceptional and morally superior to other places. Though seemingly race conscious, the diversity contract ultimately functions to obscure racial inequality and uphold white domination.