"If It Talks Like a [Becky]": Operationalizing Discourses of Whiteness

• In Event: 15.019 - Unveiling White "Post-Truth": Applying Innovative Methods in Critical Whiteness Work

Abstract

Whiteness manifests in, and is reified by, higher education institutions (Cabrera, Franklin, & Watson, 2017). As historical sites of social control, these institutions have become adept at weaponizing whiteness to serve racist agendas, obfuscating facts to further white supremacy within the post-truth paradigm. Colonial-era southern institutions built by people enslaved in a chattel system unapologetically protect evidence of their war crimes and terrorism when naming facilities and monuments after unsung university founders (i.e., white supremacist heroes) or perpetuating toxic discourse condoning psychological and physical violence against Black students.

To our knowledge, there has yet to be a research project connecting institutional behavior to interpersonal conflict arising when a white race-radical (Allen, 2004) practices allyship. We center a Black student experiencing this behavior and use a Critical Whiteness Studies (CWS) lens to deconstruct discourse using Critical Discourse Analysis (Fairclough, 2013). The discourse dataset was authored by a racist institution (student government), a racist individual (Becky), their target (Black race-radical) and their confronter (white race-radical).

The purpose of this presentation is to present the process of coding discourse for elements of whiteness and resulting dynamics of racism (Matias, 2016) and resistance. We developed theory and data-driven codes (DeCuir-Gunby, Marshall & McCulloch, 2011) to operationalize elements of whiteness and dynamics of racism (Matias, 2016). Since Matias’ (2016) list is not exhaustive, we first coded for theory-driven codes, refined our codebook definitions during the process, and added data-driven codes as they arose from the data. Furthermore, we distinguished when elements of whiteness were being employed to sustain whiteness versus called out in an attempt to deconstruct whiteness.

Preliminary results identified higher education agents attempting to appear non-racist by enacting white ignorance (Mills, 2007) and sanctioning ways of not knowing through discursive moves like denials of white complicity and distancing strategies (Applebaum, 2015). Similarly, we identified uses of racetalk and storylines (Bonilla-Silva, 2018) to defend racist practices. Analyses revealed substantial use of elements of whiteness. For example, an official student government statement condoned administrators’ stance on a confederate monument by minimizing racism with colorblindness. After dissemination, a student government officer, Becky, surveilled her constituent, a Black student, on social media to police their free expression regarding the statement. We observed Becky experiencing white fear of being called racist while monitoring her constituent’s free speech and feeling entitled to use her authority as an elected official to ask her to unpublish it. Upon refusal, we observed Becky express white rage in combative direct social media messages and email. When the constituent named her actions as racist, we observed Becky express feelings of victimization and claim to experience reverse racism. We observed Becky’s entitlement to determine what was and wasn’t racism.

This analysis demonstrates the necessity of developing research methods that are flexible and agile enough to capture the complexities of whiteness. This has implications for continuing to define what is and is not allyship and what strategies one can employ to practice it.

Authors

• Elizabeth Marie Allen, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill

• shelby eden dawkins-law evans-el, University of Pittsburgh

• Cheryl E. Matias, University of Colorado - Denver