Racial Individualism in Middle School: How Students Learn White Innocence in the Social Studies Classroom

• In Event: Sheraton Roundtable Session Four
  In Roundtable Session: Racecraft and Racial Realism in Social Studies Education (Table 8)

Abstract

This study explores how racial individualism—an ideology that views racism as individual prejudice—becomes embedded in the discourse of middle school social studies classrooms, and how this ideology shapes students’ racial socialization. I provide a case study of one teacher’s English and U.S. History class, analyzing data from ethnographic observations, teacher interviews, and classroom artifacts. I argue that racial individualism in the social studies reproduces White innocence, removing responsibility from individual White people and the United States broadly from creating and perpetuating racist systems. Moreover, racial individualism allows White students to perform anti-racism, while creating unsafe conditions for students of color to discuss racism. The study thus provides new empirical insight into how adolescents negotiate colorblind discourses in schools.

Author

• Cristina L. Lash, University of Nevada - Reno
  Presenting Author