Whiteness Semiotics as Southern Heritage: An Analysis of Colonial Symbolism in Pre-K–12 Schools Within the Home of the Confederacy

• In Event: Critical Theory, Contested Educational Spaces

Abstract

School names are “public texts” often used to legitimate meanings attached to schools. This study applies Whiteness Discourse and content analysis to analyze 13 media articles on school (re)naming. Specifically, we investigate educational stakeholders’ (i.e., school leaders and educational community members) responses to the racial politics of naming. We find that while stakeholders were willing to confront the long history of racial supremacy through public voting processes to change school names, we also identify key overlaps in public responses to school name changes that reflect whiteness as colorblindness and whiteness as epistemologies of ignorance. Findings suggest school name changes should be accompanied by transformative social action to disrupt whiteness as a system of power within schools.

Authors

• Rachel F Gomez, Virginia Commonwealth University

• Dwayne Ray Cormier, Virginia Commonwealth University

• Andrene Castro, Virginia Commonwealth University