(Un)Common White Sense: The Whiteness Behind Digital Media

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 28
  In Roundtable Session: Understanding the Role of Policy in Educational Collaborations: Understandings, Interpretations, and Knowledge Constructions

Abstract

Often misinterpreted as natural, thus deserving of its socially constructed position of superiority, whiteness is an unnaturally contrived ideology specifically employed to racially stratify society. Yielding its power through invisibility and normalcy, whiteness acts as if racial domination is the normal, natural order of the world. But invisibility has another operating mechanism; it allows whiteness to go undetected, which oftentimes mask racial inequities. Take historically white universities (HWUs) wherein curating a diverse public image of racial magnanimity, generates a positive public reputation. Yet, in this branding whiteness is still ever-present. This theoretical paper explores how past acts of whiteness lead to a present problem of white “common” sense, more like (un)common white sense, that is being enforced on one HWU.

Authors

• Cheryl E. Matias, University of Kentucky

• Jared Aldern, Denver Public Schools