A Country We Don't Know: White Liberal Ignorance and the Spotlight on Post-Truth Scholarship

• In Event: Seeking Truth and Pushing Back in the Era of Anti–Critical Race Theory

Abstract

This paper explores the rise in post-truth scholarship following white liberal shock at the election of Donald Trump. Using post-intentional phenomenology, the author asks, “Why now?” and
connects three cultural phenomena: the presidency of President Barack Obama, the scapegoating of the working class as Trump’s primary voting base, and the cultural impacts of social media. Informed by rhizomatic theory, the author views these phenomena as an assemblage to argue for post-truth scholarship that recognizes the need for analysis of white liberal communities. The author bridges this need to an urgent call for critical, humanizing literacy instruction that deepens
white consciousness within liberal communities.
Keywords: post-truth, critical literacy, white liberalism, post-truth literacy, critical literacy
instruction

Author

• Laurie Elisabet Hahn Ganser, University of Minnesota
  Presenting Author