Liberally Commodifying Diverse Bodies: A Critical Race Discourse Analysis of a School Board Candidate

• 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

This Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) interrogates the political rhetoric of a self-proclaimed liberal school board candidate. In a campaign where he actively promotes himself as racial equity-minded, the study analyzes how his discourse still belies tactics that preserve white dominance. A theoretical framework of Critical Race Theory and Critical Whiteness Studies (CWS) is used to intentionally balance the focus on the effect on racially oppressed groups and the white subject position - the sadistic artisans of said oppression. Through discursive maneuvers that casually objectify others, facilitate deniability, and explicitly omit and downplay adverse outcomes of white actions, the data reveals two themes that reify white dominant ideologies: the commodification of non-white bodies and the conservation of a white innocence narrative.

Author

• Karla R. Thomas, Northwestern University