The Color Line and White Bread: Narrativized Content and White Identity

• In Event: 69.037 - Critical Family History and the Novel as Tools of Whiteness Pedagogies: A Theory-to-Practice Symposium

Abstract

Frameworks
In “The Souls of White Folks,” W. E. B. Du Bois (1920/1995) asked, “But what on earth is whiteness that one should so desire it?” Then always, somehow, some way, silently but clearly, I am given to understand that whiteness is the ownership of the earth forever and ever, Amen!” Du Bois (1920) wrote this little often referenced essay two years after World War I, during the time of the negotiation of the Versailles Treaty of 1919 which formally ended the war. At the Treaty negotiations, the Allied Powers were punishing Germany for its treatment of European countries, especially Belgium. However, the Allied Powers ignored the slaughtering of 12 million people in the Congo by King Leopold.

Contexts of teaching and goals
In this study, I reflect on using White Bread as an instructional tool in a graduate class: Teaching Diverse Youth, Curriculum & Instruction 536, to help the students examine race/racism and identity. The demographics of the class were: 21 White students (16 males, 5 females); one African American male; and one Chinese-born, recent arrival female. The age of the students ranged from 27-42. Teaching Diverse Youth met for four weeks, 1-4 pm, four days a week. White Bread was the main book for the class, however other materials were also used to teach about the color line and its place in education policy and practice.

My goal for the class was to help the students understand: the color line and white identity, its legacy and its presence in twenty-first century America. An additional goal was to help the students see the intersection of class, gender and other categorizations with race.

Data sources and analyses
The data source for my study was student papers, my reflections, and critical incidents in the class. One other data source was a student informant. I reflected on and analyzed these data sources using the modes described in teacher research (Cole & Knowles, 2000) through Du Bois' concepts of whiteness and the color-line.

Substantiated observations and significance
Some key findings from the study are: White males were more resistant to discussion of race and they resisted relating or connecting to the characters in White Bread. Their [White male students'] conception of their identity was an identity they wanted to leave in place. White females did a good job of using White Bread to explore race and racism and of identifying with the White female character. In addition, six of the White males, throughout the four weeks, harbored a low-key passive aggressive attitude toward the Black male professor. Six of the other White males “played the game”; they didn’t want to jeopardize their grade. The remaining four White males engaged with the White women in the class who valued what they were getting out of the book.

References

Cole, A.L. & Knowles, J.G. (2000) Researching teaching: Exploring teacher development through reflexive inquiry. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.

Du Bois, W. E. B. (1995). The souls of White folks. New York, NY: Bantam. (Original work published 1920)

Author

• Carl A. Grant, University of Wisconsin - Madison