Discursive Whiteness: A Critical Race/Critical Whiteness Content Analysis of Anti–Critical Race Hyperbole in Amazon.com Reviews

• In Event: Fairmont Roundtable Session Nine
  In Roundtable Session: Cultivating Change and Antiracist Interventions Across Learning Settings (Table 2)

Abstract

In this paper, we explore how Amazon.com book reviews promoted anti-critical race theory protest and hyperbole, mirroring the contextual realities that critical education researchers face today. To discuss the ramifications of the disinformation echo chamber, we present the results from a critical race/critical whiteness content analysis of Amazon.com reviews for four texts identified by Fox News as critical race scholarship. Our themes, power play-ing, intellectualizing, and academic gaslighting, illustrate how reviewers discursively centered whiteness, while denying the authority of critical race scholars and scholarship. We conclude by discussing how Amazon.com reviews provide education researchers with the opportunity to investigate and disrupt public opposition to equity and justice.

Authors

• Lorien S Jordan, University of South Florida
  Presenting Author

• Kadesha Treco, University of Arkansas at Fayetteville
  Presenting Author

• Rachel Piontak, University of Arkansas at Fayetteville
  Presenting Author

• Stefanie McKoy, University of Arkansas - Fayetteville
  Presenting Author