The Praxis of Equity Consciousness

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 4
  In Roundtable Session: Toward Intersectional Collectivity in Critical Whiteness Studies

Abstract

The work of CWS needs to include the removal of the white anti-racist alibi. Leonardo and Zembylas (2013) elaborate that “non-racist becomes an identity, even a badge of honor” to show the ethical goodness of being a white ally (p. 156). This is an affective, psycho-emotional positioning that excuses white folks from doing the messier work of coalition building (Keating, 2005). In order for CWS to move forward, white folk need to recognize and isolate their anti-racist alibis and work toward building equity consciousness. Equity consciousness is a theory that comes out of two years researching the praxis of equity work in an urban school district in the Midwest. Findings suggest that white people who engage in equity work do not actually attempt to do equity work. Instead, they attempt to build their identities around antiracism, often missing that racism is only one component of the simultaneity of oppressions (Combahee River Collective, 1986) that makes up the lived experiences of people of color and white people. I argue that equity consciousness is the recursive ability to be in collective dialogue with perceived and unperceived identities and how space and positionality impacts the individual experience. This is the intellectual and emotional labor CWS needs to adopt.

Author

• Noah Isaiah Sims, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities