On the Promise and Problematics of Critical Whiteness Studies in Education

• In Event: What Is Systemic Racism, How Is It Experienced, and What’s to Be Done? A Multiracial Dialogue

Abstract

My specific thirst in terms of wanting to understand (in order to disrupt, challenge, and transform) contemporary White supremacy, and my approach derived from the following confluence of factors. First, I was pursuing my degree in higher education and when I began my graduate studies in 2005, the dominant way of studying race was through the “diversity rationale” (e.g., that affirmative action was legally justifiable because all students experienced increased educational outcome stemming from diverse learning environments; Gurin et al., 2002; Hurtado et al., 1998).

Author

• Nolan L. Cabrera, University of Arizona