Implications of Whiteness: How Class (and perceptions thereof) Perpetuate Educational and Societal Harm

• In Event: Unmasking and Undoing Whiteness: Power, and Praxis across Educational Contexts

Abstract

Given the link between the influence of whiteness and class discrepancies that manifest in US schools, I conducted a literature review on the intersections of whiteness, class, and education to contextualize inequities that I witnessed during my teaching experience. Bohonos’s (2021) observation of the “property value of whiteness” provided the framework through which I aim to answer: “How does social class act as a barrier to students of color?” I draw from three distinct decades of literature (1990 - 2024) as a snapshot into the role whiteness, neoliberalism, and subsequently capitalism have played in marginalizing and “othering” the perspectives from students and persons of color. This results in the exclusion of both policy development and acceptance of research from scholars of color. I conclude by advocating for the redistribution of wealth amongst school districts and for all public education officials to demand equity in all financial distribution measures.

Author

• Troy Daniel Asseln, University of Minnesota