Whiteness as Discourse: Critical Discourse Analysis of Elite University Responses to the January 6th Insurrection

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session 14
  In Roundtable Session: Disrupting or Maintaining White Supremacy and Anti-Blackness? Literature, Responses, and Discourse (Table 17)

Abstract

On 6 January 2021, a political rally turned mob breached the U.S. Capitol building. The January 6th insurrection was a movement characterized by a discourse of whiteness and white supremacy. Critical discourse analysis methods were used to analyze the implicit and explicit messages communicated from elite university institutions’ public responses. My conceptual framework is grounded in critical whiteness studies including the constructs whiteness as an epistemology of ignorance; color blindness; and interest convergence, taken from critical legal studies.

Author

• Jonathon Sanders, The University of North Texas