Contested White Students at an Institution of Higher Education: The Construction of Shame and Responsibilization

• In Event: 75.042 - MTCC Roundtable Session 34
  In Roundtable Session: 75.042-8 - (Re)Positioning Privilege, Power, and Praxis in the Interrogation of Whiteness

Abstract

Contested white students (CWS) attending a predominantly white institution of higher education (PWI) experience consistent, overwhelming contestation of their racial identity by others, themselves, faculty, fellow students, and institutions because they do not neatly fit into current mental models of racial categorization. Narratives collected from 20 CWS reveal a deep shame and an overall responsibilization for the contestation and questioning that contested whites (CW) navigate on a day-to-day, moment to moment basis. This paper outlines two instruments of racial contestation that CWS are subject to, and analyzes the deep shame and responsibilization that is produced.

Author

• Orkideh Mohajeri, West Chester University of Pennsylvania