PRIYA KAPOOR Provincializing Whiteness We Are All Calibans ABSTRACT Provincializing whiteness—this deconstructing move lays bare the absolute power of racial supremacy that faculty of color housed in communication studies and other departments have faced in US academia. Yet, acts of racial supremacy reveal how provincial that way of thinking is. There is a plethora of her-his-stories that are better suited to coexis- tence and tolerance without privileging Western modernity. KEYWORDS Race; Personal narrative; Autoethnography; Global institutions; Global education Meritocracy contradicts the principle of equality. HANNAH ARENDT 1 A call for papers for this special issue on merit, privilege, and diversity urges con- tributors to reflect on strategies of resistance. Whereas solutions are hard to find, strategies and tactics endure. I assert provincializing whiteness 2 —a decon- structing move that lays bare the absolute power of racial supremacy that faculty of color housed in communication studies and other departments have faced in US academia. 3 Yet, acts of racial supremacy reveal how provincial that way of thinking is. There is a plethora of her-his-stories that are better suited to coex- istence and tolerance without privileging Western modernity. 4 The academy has grown increasingly global and globalized in stature, therefore the situation warrants attention. On the heels of realizing that I am a participant in a global organization, I wish to revisit the term. 5 I introduced provincializing whiteness in an earlier publication examining the extent to which whiteness informs politics and policies of reproductive health in the Global South, in the end sub- jugating bodies of its denizens. It was published in Whiteness: The Communica- tion of Social Identity, edited by stalwarts Thomas K. Nakayama and Judith N. Martin, two decades ago. 6 First of its kind in communication studies, this an- thology set off the discussion on whiteness and introduced the work of scholars who would make it their life’s mission to toil for equity and justice. Admittedly, 16 Departures in Critical Qualitative Research, Vol. , Number , pp. –. ISSN -, electronic ISSN -.©  by the Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. Request permission to photocopy or reproduce article content at the University of California Press’s Reprints and Permissions web page, http://www.ucpress.edu/journals.php?p=reprints. DOI: https://doi.org/ ./dcqr.....