What It Is, What It Is Not: Racism and Competing Discourses Amid Chicago's School Closings

• In Event: 60.039 - Politics of Racialization in the City

Abstract

During 2013’s Chicago school closings, district CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett called accusations of racism “an affront to me as a woman of color,” adding that the closings’ disproportionate impact on children of color was “not racist—it’s simply a fact” (Chicago Public Schools, 2013). These comments reflect what Bonilla-Silva (2001) terms an “idealist” understanding of racism as a set of beliefs rather than as a structural phenomenon. Drawing from discourse analysis and an interdisciplinary examination of Chicago’s policy history, I argue that a fundamental dissonance between district officials and community members regarding the very nature of racism ultimately sanctioned the school closings, and portends the impossibility of community and political leaders creating effective and equitable school policies going forward.

Author

• Eve Louise Ewing, Harvard University