21.061-4 - Beyond Permit Patty and Barbecue Becky: Racial Hierarchy and Spatial Justice in Education

• In Event: 21.061 - MTCC Roundtable Session Five

Session Type: Roundtable Session

Abstract

This symposium uses Critical Race Spatial Analysis (CRSA) (Vélez & Solórzano, 2017) and Edward Soja’s theory of spatial justice (2009, 2010) to examine the racialization of space in four integrated educational settings in the U.S. West, Northeast, and South. The papers in this session use the lens of CRSA to reveal, with geographical specificity, how the white spatial imaginary (Lipsitz, 2011) functions to secure white advantage in and through schooling. Despite claims to be equitable spaces, the focal schools struggled against the white spatial imaginary, harnessing social justice claims to space while advancing the racial interests of white elites. The authors describe how educators responded to this tension and provide ideas for creating spatially and racially just programs of education.

Sub Unit

• Division G - Social Context of Education / Division G - Section 1: Education and Place, Space, Time

Chairs

• Mariama Gray, California State University - East Bay

• Benjamin Blaisdell, East Carolina University

Papers

• Charter School Co-Location, Organized Abandonment, and the Exploitation of Racialized Scarcity - Jeremy P Benson, Rhode Island College

• Disrupting "Safety" in Preservice Teacher Education - Sonal Patel, California State University - East Bay

• Cupcakes, Antiblackness, and the Production of Racialized Space - Benjamin Blaisdell, East Carolina University

• Police in the Classroom: How the Discourse of Safety Reinforces White Supremacy - Mariama Gray, California State University - East Bay

Discussant

• Verónica Nelly Vélez, Western Washington University