Complicating Color-Blind Racism: Exploring Anti-Black Frames Among Community School Leaders in a Liberal Context

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session 3
  In Roundtable Session: Hierarchies of Racism and Violence: Higher Education, School, and Community

Abstract

Through this qualitative case study, I identify a unique discourse used by predominantly white and progressive community school leaders (school staff, parents and community partners) as they made sense of the disparities and harms Black youth and their families experienced within schools and communities. I highlight how these community school leaders understood Black youth and their families as “problem” in explicit and covert ways.. Findings from this study complicate the literature on “colorblind” ideology by documenting how school leaders adopt liberal and structural discourse that recognizes race yet still reinforces harm to Black youth and families and diminishes the culpability of harmful school processes.

Author

• Gwendolyn Baxley, University at Buffalo - SUNY