"Being White Means Being Seen as Racist": Trump Effect and Racial Violence in an American High School

• In Event: 45.092 - MTCC Roundtable Session 17
  In Roundtable Session: 45.092-2 - Critical Race Analysis, Racial Disproportionality, and Racial Violence in Schools

Abstract

In Fall of 2017, one month after white supremacists rallied in Charlottesville, white high school students in the Northeast used social media to start what would be called, the “name game”, where they dared other white students to approach black students and use the N-word. While many black students were taunted, a couple responded with violence. Three fights occurred that week and school officials invited the authors of this proposal to intervene. This ethnographic case study examines the build-up to the incidents and the varied interpretations of the incident and its causes. This account illustrates how the “Trump Effect” (SPLC, 2016) manifested at one school, threatening to split apart a normally close and quiet community.

Authors

• Anthony Johnston, University of Saint Joseph

• Donald Shawn Siler, University of Saint Joseph

• Anthony De Jesus, Harvard University