The Persistence of the Black/White Racial Binary: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Racial Reporting (Poster 17)

• In Event: AERA Poster Session Thursday 8:00 a.m.
  In Poster Session: Social Context of Education Policies, Mattering, and Praxis

Abstract

This Critical Discourse Analysis traces the legacy of racial reporting guidelines that work to shape and preserve the socially constructed racial binary. Social construction theory and critical race theory inform the analysis of the language and discourses pertaining to the history and revisions of Statistical Policy Directive No. 15 (SPD 15). This analysis will describe, interpret, and explain the ways in which this policy shapes dominant understandings of the racial binary which serve to construct, maintain, and legitimize social inequities (Mullet, 2018). This study will address the promotion of monoracial normativity and erasure of Biracial identities through the language and discourses pertaining to policies, creating societal expectations that other the identification of Biracial and multi-racial identities.

Author

• Jessica Z Kluck, University of Northern Iowa