The Making of Antiracists: Mapping the Journeys of Antiracist White Educators

• In Event: Roundtable Session 85
  In Roundtable Session: Antiracism, Diversity, and Critical Race Theory: Perceptions From the Field

Abstract

Preparing a majority white teaching force requires exploring how antiracist white educators come to exist. This two-part study examined the racial conceptualizations, teaching practices, and life experiences of antiracists. Study I revealed that dominant ideologies about whiteness, cultural deficits, and racism can exist even in those who espouse and demonstrate antiracist commitments. Study II examined the understandings and pedagogies of well-known white teacher educators and scholar-activists who are farther along in their antiracist trajectories. Antiracists believe racism is institutional, that whites are mis-educated, and whiteness serves only to dehumanize people. Participants cited dissonance, devastation, efficacy, and relationships as origins of antiracism. Finally, white teacher educators used co-optation, proxyhood, and "privilege within privilege" in their own work with mostly white teachers.

Author

• Taharee A. Jackson, University of the District of Columbia