Whitelash Strategies Reflected in Contemporary U.S. Bills and Statements Targeting Critical Race Theory in Higher Education

• In Event: Saturday Roundtable Session 3:05 pm
  In Roundtable Session: Closing the Theory-to-Policy-and-Practice Gap: An Examination of the Role of Critical Theories (Table 3)

Abstract

U.S. state lawmakers have introduced and passed bills advocating the banning of books and limiting discussion of LGBTQ issues and other “woke” content, including the teaching of “divisive concepts” such Critical Race Theory (CRT). In this study, we reviewed the text of 53 state-level bills and 26 justification statements targeting the teaching of CRT in postsecondary education. Through Critical Discourse Analysis (Gee, 2014; Fairclough, 1992), we uncovered five strategies of whitelash replete throughout this legislation: Authority, White Innocence, Appropriation & Rearticulation, Fear, and In/Out Group. These whitelash strategies are used to maintain the racial state (Omi & Winant, 2006), and it is critical that postsecondary leaders and faculty be familiar with them. Here, we describe each strategy and provide examples.

Authors

• Meg Hazel, West Chester University of Pennsylvania

• Orkideh Mohajeri, West Chester University of Pennsylvania