Inclusion Into What? Disrupting White Discourses in "Diverse" and "Inclusive" Classrooms

• In Event: 45.092 - MTCC Roundtable Session 17
  In Roundtable Session: 45.092-5 - "Where Do I Fit In?" Disrupting "Diversity" and "Inclusion" Efforts in Predominantly White Spaces

Abstract

Purpose and Context of the Study
This theoretical paper conceptualizes how a critical whiteness approach to language practices should enjoin efforts to “abolish institutions of unfreedom” (Tuck & Yang, 2018, p. 8). Put another way, the conceptual framework reflects on why disrupting and decentering white discourse becomes a crucial point of problematizing “diversity and inclusion” initiatives--- particularly as they serve white interests (see Bell, 1980). The ensuing examination derives from the author’s observations in a predominantly white “honors” program, at a predominantly Black and Latinx urban high school, in the Rocky Mountain region of the U.S. The context might be described as a “sophisticated urban” space, where “white supremacy is more about the centrality of white advantage from which urban whites do not escape, and often actively deploy” (Leonardo & Hunter, 2009, p. 148). That is, when white students attend “urban” schools, their whiteness is not mitigated by the school’s “diversity” (p. 147). In fact, the self-branding as “cosmopolitan” becomes a status symbol of white privilege in the urban setting (p. 147). The author thus asks, if students of color are to join such a predominantly white program, what are they being “included” into? And what are the normative practices of whiteness that must be decentered?

Theoretical Framing
In her description of white “diss-course,” Matias (2016) utilizes a critical whiteness studies (CWS) analytic, revealing how language practices of whites often “mask the saliency of race and racism behind a seemingly innocent ocular of colorblindness” (p. 13). Yet, she notes, these same discursive performances and emotionally-laden responses of whites betray their “innocent” position. In other words, whites know what they are doing to maintain white space. Still, despite decades of research on the failures of race-blind approaches (see Bonilla-Silva, 2017), colorblind and color-evasive practices remain prevalent (Annamma, et al., 2017). The danger of this is described well by Leonardo (2013), who asserts, “we might argue that the hostile environment most students of color experience is precisely one where race referents are muted or coded because they are ambiguous situations” (p. 126). Thus, creating a truly racially-inclusive classroom entails the need for educators to critically and explicitly identify the parameters of white supremacy, rather than allowing “white diss-course” to obscure it. Correspondingly, as Coloma (2013) has advocated, the very dynamics of “empire” should be used as the driving analytical framework in education.

Scholarly Significance
In an epoch witnessing an emboldened en-whitening epistemology of the far- and mainstream right (Matias & Newlove, 2017), it also remains important to maintain a sharp focus on how white liberalism reproduces “class hierarchies, racial oppression, and moral sanctimoniousness” (Sullivan, 2014, p. 6). For example, frequent attempts of white liberals to distance themselves from the 2016 presidential election, used defensive language such as, “Not me!” or “I didn’t vote for Trump!”---effectively attempting to “evade [their position in] systemic racism, which has allowed inequities to be perpetuated throughout history” (Annamma, et al., 2017, p. 155). Additional examples from the author’s observations, and suggested practices for educators, will thus be explicated.

Author

• Pete Newlove, University of Colorado - Denver